If It Had Been Real
by threemine2013
Summary: An alternate version of Season Three, based on the idea of the first episode 'He Ain't A Hottie, He's My Brother' not having been a dream. Lackson, Moliver. Any other pairings will depend on the fanfic's development.
1. Chapter 1: After the kiss

**Well, this is it... my first attempt at a Hannah Montana fanfic. The basic idea for this is sort of an alternate version of season 3, with the first episode 'He Ain't a Hottie, He's My Brother" having been real, instead of a dream. **

**Don't get me wrong, I liked the real season 3, and I'm liking season 4 as well... but I just got this idea, and I decided to try it out. How far it will go, it depends on a lot of things.**

**I'm not a particularly hardcore Lackson fan, but I do think Jackson and Lilly would look cute together, in their own way. I don't know how many of you agree, but well... I welcome opinions.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 1 – After the kiss**

For the uncoutableth time since the last ten minutes, Miley Ray Stewart put both of her hands in front of her mouth, trying her best not to throw up as she peeked at her brother and best friend 'sealing the deal' as Jackson had put it. Considering the time they'd been taking, the deal was already sealed so deep that breaking them apart would be harder than trying to deny her father his access to hair products for a whole week.

_Sweet niblets, it's been ten minutes already, and they haven't stopped! _Miley thought. _It's like that time when Uncle Earl kissed Aunt Pearl after eating an extra-big peanut-butter sandwich and their tongues got glued together._

Fortunately, neither Lilly nor Jackson had eaten peanut butter recently, otherwise they'd really be stuck together for a long time. But even without it, the only breaks they took was to get some air, and none had lasted more than five seconds, basing on what Miley could hear – after all, she spent most of her time with her back turned. It made Miley wonder just how much time the two of them had spent crushing on each other, if what they were giving into these kisses was all they had held back for so long.

If not for having something important to ask them, Miley would be long gone by now, but she had to settle a small matter before going away – and she wanted to do so before she forgot about it.

But in order to do that, she had to talk to Lilly and Jackson, and they had to stop kissing long enough to listen to her.

Miley turned around yet again, trying to see if her brother and Lilly had already stopped kissing. They hadn't. If anything, they were kissing even more deeply than before.

But Miley had waited long enough. She had to get this thing out of her system. Then she'd go away, and Jackson and Lilly could do what they wanted.

"Sweet niblets, will you two stop or what?" Miley shouted. "You've been kissing for more than ten minutes now, wouldn't you at least need some air?"

Jackson and Lilly pulled apart, both of them panting as though they'd run a long distance, and with their hair disheveled – their real hair, as the blue Lola wig was clutched in Jackson's hand, and Jackson had gone to _Mack & Mickey in the Morning_ as himself.

"What is it you want, Miley?" Lilly asked. "You already said you'd be okay with us dating as long as you didn't have to see it. But if you didn't want to see it, you could have gone away."

"I know I said that." Miley said. "But first, there's something I need to discuss with both of you. I wanted to wait until you stopped kissing first, but seeing as you'd be kissing 'till who knows when, I had to interrupt you."

"And what is it you want, Miley?" Lilly repeated.

Miley stopped for a moment, trying to ponder the best way to put the question. She wanted to make sure she got the message across the first time, and didn't want her best friend – or even her brother, for that matter – to get angry at her because of some misinterpretation.

"Well, I want you to, next time we go to _Mack & Mickey in the Morning_, or any other program of the sort, that either you tell that Lola's not dating Jackson, or that Jackson says he's not dating Lola."

Noticing that both Lilly's and Jackson's looks were starting to get darker, she quickly added, "Don't get me wrong, I'm okay with Lilly and Jackson dating, but if Lola and Jackson also date, that can lead to people starting to wonder certain things – and well, even if I kept you apart, I did nothing serious enough to have the Hannah secret ruined, did I?"

In an effort to convince them, Miley tried to summon the most begging look she could. She knew Lilly and Jackson were still a little bit angry at her for trying to keep them away from each other, but she also knew - or at least, hoped - they weren't angry enough to think she deserved to have the Hannah secret blown.

Fortunately, they appeared to get what she meant – but they didn't seem particularly happy about it.

"Alright, Miley, I guess we can try not to ruin the Hannah secret." Lilly said. "If Jackson and Lola ever go to an event together, we'll try to hold our feelings back."

But it was obvious Lilly wasn't particularly happy about it. Neither was Jackson, it seemed.

"It's always the same thing." he mumbled, just loud enough for Miley to hear. "No matter how important something is for anyone around here, it always has to come second place for Hannah Montana and her precious secret."

"Hey, that's not fair!" Miley shouted. "I only ask Lola and Jackson to hold back, not Lilly and Jackson! Lilly and Jackson can do whatever the hell they want – away from me, at least."

"Yes, Miley, we understood what you asked." Lilly said. "But why do we have to hold our feelings back _at all_? You never did with Jake. Or Trey. Or Johnny? Why do we have to do it?"

Alright, that much was true. It wasn't really fair. But still, the Hannah secret was too big, and if Lola and Jackson showed the same kind of affection that Lilly and Jackson, it would be basically giving her secret away. And Miley didn't want to do that, unless there really was no other choice. But hopefully she could convince them to hold back while Lilly was Lola - assuming Jackson would really start going to more Hannah events than he did now.

"I admit, you have a point there." Miley said to Lilly. "But in those cases, there wasn't any risk involved. In this there is. Can't you do this for me?"

Miley tried her best to summon a puppy dog look, but either she failed to put it on, or she failed to reach her goal with it. Both Lilly and Jackson were still downcast.

Lilly reached up to tuck a strand of her hair behind her ear – and then, as though that gesture had been a trigger for a certain idea to come to her mind, she said,

"I know!"

"You know?" Miley asked. "You know what?"

"The way for Lola not to have to worry about holding her feelings back."

"What is it?"

"Well, if I have Lola, you have Hannah, and Oliver has Mike, then we just need to create another identity for Jackson! That way, Lilly and Jackson don't have to hold their feelings back, and neither have Lola and… well, whatever secret identity Jackson gets."

Miley opened her mouth at that, but she closed it immediately after. Lilly did have a point. Creating a secret identity for Jackson would work just fine. While it was true Jackson usually wanted to be himself in front of Hannah to impress girls through his connection to her, that point became moot if Lilly was his girlfriend. The only downside was that Jackson would start coming to a lot more Hannah events – and that perhaps Jackson would not agree with it.

Fortunately, Jackson also seemed to think it was a good idea.

"You know, that's just the thing to do." he said. "And I've just had an idea for what disguise I'm going to wear."

After giving the Lola wig back to Lilly, Jackson immediately ran upstairs to his room, to get his disguise. Miley immediately made a face.

Whatever was coming from down there, it was bound to be nothing good. After all, this was Jackson they were talking about.

* * *

"Ladies and Gentlemen, please welcome Bucky Kentucky!"

Miley jumped up from her couch when Jackson's voice echoed through the living room. She'd heard those very words in a dream, about a year ago. It had been her father saying them. Ironically enough, Lilly had also said she loved Jackson in that dream. Again, Miley couldn't help but to wonder how long they had been crushing on each other.

Hoping there wouldn't be a sight to make her go blind, Miley turned her head backwards. Sure enough, Jackson stood there, wearing exactly the same Bucky Kentucky outfit she'd seen him wearing on that dream. And by exactly, it was right down to the slightest detail.

He was wearing a long blonde wig with a cloth headband tied around it and a sleeveless shirt, with a dog tag around his neck. He also had a piece of cloth tied around his right elbow, another tied around his left wrist, and a bracelet with spikes on his right wrist. He was also wearing trousers made of fake snake skin, and red cowboy boots.

_How can he remember the outfit from the dream so well and yet don't remember what's coming on the tests? _Miley thought. _Or for that matter, how did he get to know how the outfit looks? I told them about the dream, but never about Bucky Kentucky's outfit!_

Lilly, however, didn't seem to be thinking about those matters. Instead, she simply put the Lola wig back on, and walked toward 'Bucky' with a wide smile on her face.

"You're looking pretty handsome in that outfit, Mr. Kentucky." she said, with a very pleased look in her eyes.

Miley's eyes went as wide as saucers at that statement.

"Girl in the blue wig say what?" she said.

Handsome? How could Lilly find someone dressed like that handsome?

"Come on, you've got to admit that outfit gives him a sort of rugged charm."

Rugged charm? Did she and Lilly actually live on the same planet anymore? Or were Jackson's effects on Lilly's brain so nasty that she had started seeing things the way they weren't?

Then again, 'Lola' was the one in the tight clothes with loud colors and a different wig about every time she appeared in public. In its own way, that was about as strange as 'Bucky Kentucky's' outfit.

Meanwhile, 'Bucky' gave 'Lola' his own pleased smile.

"Why thank you, Ms. Luftnagle." he said. "You're looking really pretty yourself."

"Oh, you're so sweet." Lilly cooed.

"No, you're so sweet." Jackson replied in a very similar tone.

"Alright, you're both sweet." Miley interrupted. "But just wait until I'm out of here before you move on, OK?"

Not giving Lilly or Jackson a chance to reply, Miley took the Hannah wig off, and went to her bedroom. Now that Jackson and Lilly had agreed with the point that Lola could not have a public relationship with Jackson, it was better just to stay put and try to wrap her mind around the fact Lilly and Jackson were dating.

Yes, it was quite weird, when, as far as she recalled, Jackson and Lilly hadn't ever revealed any sign of a crush for each other. And yes, it had its creepy, even disgusting side, considering what Miley had seen when Lilly had told her to 'look up there'.

But Miley loved both of them, and wanted both of them to be happy – even if it had to be with each other. And for their sake, she would just try her best to accept their new relationship.

But it sure would be one of the hardest tasks of her life.

* * *

**So, this is it. The first chapter is only meant to be an alternate ending to the episode 'He Ain't a Hottie, He's My Brother'. The rest of the fanfic will leave from it. **

**Help is welcome. I tried to get some Hannah Montana jokes right - like the 'say what' thing, or the 'Uncle Earl metaphors', but I don't know if I did it. I'd greatly value it if some experienced writer in this domain gave me a review.**

**Also... feel free to give me any idea for any change you'd like/think would happen in one of the future episodes now that Lilly's dating Jackson right from the start.**

**And well, I hope some of you review.**


	2. Chapter 2: Between dodging the rules

**Well, I'm sorry if it seems like I took too much time updating this chapter. The reasons why that happened won't be explained now, though. Instead, please read the author's note at the end of this chapter.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 2 – Between dodging the rules**

Miley Stewart sat on the driver's seat of a car, practicing for her driver's test, which was only an hour away. Learning how to drive had turned out to be hard – but surely not as hard as stomaching the fact that Lilly and Jackson were dating. And at least it was paying off. When Miley had her driver's license, she could go wherever she wanted without her father or Jackson driving her. The first one was acceptable, although not exactly ideal, but the second one was something which made her sick. Because these days, being driven by Jackson meant watching Lilly and her brother together, being affectionate toward each other.

Miley had expected the two of them to break up after a week at the most – which was twice longer than most of Jackson's girlfriends lasted, and the longest Jackson had managed to keep a girlfriend. But it had been much longer than a week, and Lilly and Jackson not only were together, but were happy. And no matter how much Miley wanted to be happy for them, for some reason she couldn't.

Alright, being honest with herself, she knew the reason behind that. It was because she didn't have a boyfriend to be as in love with as Lilly was with Jackson, or as Oliver seemed to be with Joannie – which, for the record, was another relationship that was lasting longer than average. And for that matter, both Lilly's and Oliver's most recent relationships had already lasted at least twice more than the longest relationship Miley had with a guy.

In the end, Miley had finally convinced herself that her relationships didn't last simply because she hadn't found her right guy yet?

But why was that? Was it simple bad luck? Or was she simply so horrible for guys that none of them lasted long around her?

Miley pressed down a little bit harder on the pedal, trying to force that train of thoughts out of her head before it became totally unstoppable.

"You doin' good there, bud." her father said. "Driving like a real pro."

Miley almost jumped out of her seat. She'd been so wrapped in her thoughts and in her driving that she'd forgotten her father was there.

"You may wanna slow down here just a touch." he carried on.

But Miley, knowing her father like the palm of her hand, could guess what he added inside his mind. '_We're gonna die, we're gonna die, we're gonna die!_'

"No problem Daddy, you're the boss." Miley said, not caring to sound particularly soothing.

_I know what I'm doin', old man, stick a sock in it!_ she added in her mind.

"You got ace that driver's test." her father carried on. "Just focus on the road, and stay calm."

But Miley could almost hear his mind saying '_I'm gonna throw up!_'

"I will Daddy, don't worry, the driver's license is already practically in my hands." she said.

_And then I'll never have to drive with your parental paranoid butt again._

And Miley sure wanted that moment more than about anything – except for Amber and Ashley to move to Australia, or for Mikayla to somehow stop annoying Hannah.

_Or a boyfriend. _a malicious voice added inside her head.

Again, Miley pressed down on the pedal just a little bit harder. The biggest moment of glory of her teenage years was about to come, and she didn't need to ruin it with those thoughts.

* * *

Some miles away from his younger sister, Jackson walked out of the Pacific Ocean, holding a surfboard under his arm, and panting slightly after having spent the last hour surfing with his girlfriend. It had been wonderful - like all the moments he spent with Lilly - but it had also been exhausting. He'd lost the count of the times Lilly had knocked his surfboard over, and besides, by this time, at least before he had started dating Lilly, he was usually still in bed. If not for the threat of the bucket of water - and at times, for the bucket of water itself - Jackson wouldn't get out of the house on time for school. Unlike Lilly, who was one of the earliest birds he knew. Recently, he'd ended up becoming an early bird as well - but it was more than worth it, just to have more time to spend with his girlfriend. Even if said time involved having his surfboard knocked over countless times and end up with a lot of swollen muscles.

Jackson glanced briefly toward his right, to watch Lilly walking by his side, also with a surfboard tucked under her arm. Unlike him, she didn't look tired at all, nor did she look as if she had swollen muscles. Instead, she looked ready to make twice the effort if she had to. And she also looked really good in those yellow board shorts and a blue bikini top that matched her eyes. She'd look even better if she was wearing the matching lower part without the board shorts covering it, but ever since he'd known her, Lilly had never surfed without board shorts on - something that Jackson couldn't understand, but that he respected. And it wasn't a bother anyway. After all, he got to watch her without board shorts over her bikini bottom whenever the two went to the beach just to enjoy a swim - as in the hot California sun, one didn't need to make much of an effort to get a sun tanning. The only thing one needed was not to forget the sunscreen - like Jackson had learned the hard way when he went to that volleyball game.

Clearly having realized Jackson was looking at her, Lilly looked toward him and gave him one of those fantastically bright smiles that only she could muster.

"You need to stop looking at me so much, Jackson." she said. From her tone, it was obvious she was about to come up with one of her teasings. "That was what caused you to lose the surfing challenge."

"What can I say?" Jackson asked with a smile of his own. "Some sights are meant to be enjoyed."

By now, they were walking on wet sand instead of through low water.

"Besides, I am a gentleman." Jackson said in his 'Elvis voice'. "It 'd look bad if I didn't let my girl win."

Alright, that much wasn't true. Lilly had been surfing for most of her life, while Jackson had only started after the family moved to California, and didn't even do it all that frequently. But since he and Lilly had started dating, he'd been surfing more often.

"That's so sweet of you." Lilly cooed, her smile widening, although she could obviously read through his words.

Jackson set his surfboard down on the sand. "I hope to make your victory kiss even sweeter."

Lilly dropped her surfboard, and then wrapped her arms around Jackson's neck. Letting go of his own surfboard, Jackson wrapped his arms around Lilly's waist, leaned down only a little bit, and gave Lilly the deepest and most romantic kiss he could muster. There had been a time when his kissing skills left a lot to be desired - but with Lilly, they seemed to come out of him as naturally as breathing. As if she was the one meant for him all along.

A moment after, the two reluctantly parted to take a breath. If they were on a more private place, more kisses would have come, but this was public. While neither Jackson nor Lilly considered themselves prudes, they wouldn't make out in a crowded beach.

"Lilly! Jackson!" Oliver's voice suddenly called.

Looking around, the two saw Oliver about thirty feet away, walking toward them, with Joannie holding his hand.

"Hey Oliver, hey Joannie." Lilly said.

"Hey Lilly." Joannie greeted, far friendlier than she had been before that sleepover at Miley's house.

Jackson greeted the other couple with a nod.

"Do you know at which time Miley's driving test finishes?" he asked.

"Nope." Jackson replied. "But it will take some more time, I'm sure."

Lilly checked her waterproof watch. "It only started about five minutes ago. I don't know how long it will last, but it will be some, most likely."

"Swell." Oliver said.

"I hope she passes it." Joannie said. "If she does, at least someone will get something before the Black Barbie Addison for once."

Both Lilly and Jackson nodded, knowing Joannie was referring to Amber. The biggest diva of Seaview High School was also taking her driving test today - although hers would start some time after Miley's. If Miley passed, she'd get something before Amber – and most people at her grade were quite anxious for someone to get to something before Amber.

"When she finishes, you two take her to Rico's." Oliver said. "The others and I prepared a congratulations banner for her hitting the highway before Amber."

Jackson gave a glance at Joannie, slightly curious about how she would feel at the fact Oliver had come up with the idea of the whole class making a congratulations banner for Miley. Although, from what he recalled, Joannie hadn't been thrilled at the idea, she also didn't seem particularly annoyed. That was somewhat of a surprise, even considering Joannie's relationship with Miley had been improving lately.

"I just can't wait for that." Lilly said. "Amber will be green with envy after that."

At that comment, Joannie also seemed slightly envious, apparently because she hadn't gotten her driver's license yet. Considering she was a year older than Lilly - although she was in the same grade, that was a little bit strange. Whether it was due to financial problems to pay the driving course or because Joannie's anger issues somehow disturbed her driving lessons, neither Jackson nor Lilly knew. But none of them was particularly interested in finding out.

"Let's just hope Miley does get her test done." Lilly said. "If she doesn't, we'll all get an earful from Amber for being the first of the class at something again."

The sheer thought was enough to make everyone – even Jackson – frown. Although he'd never been a direct target of Amber and Ashley's mocking, he liked them about as much as any other of their group. Seeing them lie low for a while would be quite refreshing, even if Miley was the one responsible for that.

Oliver smiled at the thought as well, "Yes, let's just hope."

Then, his frown being replaced by a serious look, he added, "Joannie and I have to go now. I and the others need to put up the banner before Miley comes. Besides, there's also one last rap rehearsal to make."

Both Lilly's and Jackson's eyes widened.

"Rap rehearsal?" Jackson asked. "You mean... you actually went forward with the idea of making a rap to congratulate her?"

"Of course!" Oliver said, as though it was obvious. "Miley must be congratulated the proper way!"

Lilly sighed in hopelessness, before saying, "Oliver, congratulating Miley with the rap is the idiotic way, not the proper way."

Oliver didn't appear fazed in the least by Lilly's insults. Apparently, it was something he was already used to. For his part, Jackson didn't make any comment. As far as he was concerned, Oliver's rapping was simply average rapping. It wasn't his favorite type of music, but he didn't have anything against it.

"But back to the main point, we can take Miley to Rico's after she's done with her test." Lilly added.

"Swell." Oliver said. "See you later, with the first driver of our class."

After a quick exchange of goodbyes, Oliver and Joannie went away, while both Jackson and Lilly bent down to grab their surfboards.

"As for us, perhaps we'd better get our surfboards home and shower up before meeting Miley." Lilly said. "If we meet her looking like we only remembered at the last minute, I don't think she'll be thrilled about it."

"Good point." Jackson said. "If I know my sister right, she'll start saying about we forgot all about her, and then she'll throw a tantrum bigger than the one Uncle Earl threw that time he spent three hours trying to get his mule to move."

And complaints from Miley were something they already had in more than big enough amount. Even considering she had accepted their relationship, she was always complaining whenever he and Lilly got too affectionate. Lilly had said it was because she was jealous, and had even suggested the plan of getting Miley a boyfriend. Jackson agreed with the first part, but he didn't think the second was a good idea. If they started trying to set her up with someone, she'd probably complain even more. It was better to just put up with Miley's complaining, and hope that she'd fall in love with some guy soon.

Fortunately, they still managed to have a reasonable number of Miley-free moments. And if Miley passed her driving test – something Jackson was desperate for – they'd soon get another one, and Miley would be too busy celebrating her hitting of the highway to come to them.

"How about we go for a walk after the whole congratulating Miley business is done with?" Jackson suggested.

"Sure, Jackson." Lilly said with a smile. "Where will we go this time?"

"We can think about that later." Jackson said. "For now, we'd better follow your idea of getting our surfboards home, showering up and putting new clothes on."

Lilly nodded, and bent down to finally pick up her jacket, before starting to move toward him. Guessing what she meant, Jackson went to meet her and the two exchanged a 'see you soon kiss'.

After a minute, the two of them started pulling apart, but stopped midway through the gesture.

"Another sugar for the way, perhaps?" Jackson asked.

"Oooh… a sugar for the way. Good idea." Lilly said.

Lilly and Jackson's lips met again, but just like the previous kiss, it turned out not to be the last, because then Lilly wanted one last kiss, that one for 'the way to meet Miley'. It was only after that last one that both finally went to their houses, to shower up and change before meeting Miley – and before their walk to a yet to plan place.

* * *

Half an hour later, Jackson arrived at Lilly's house, after having his shower and putting clean clothes on. If it had been before he and Lilly started dating, he wouldn't have gone through the trouble of wearing two different outfits on the same day, but since he and Lilly had started dating, Jackson had started doing a lot of different things - namely, cleaning his room, putting his clean clothes on the closet and the dirty ones on the wash basket, and all of those things. Most surprising of all, it had been out of his own free will.

Jackson had never cleaned his room only to fall on a girl's good graces - but he'd already come to the conclusion that Lilly wasn't just a girl. She was his girlfriend - and to such an extent that by now Jackson couldn't imagine ever breakig up with her - nor did he ever want to think about what would happen if the two ever broke up.

Deciding to stop his musings before those negative thoughts could actually come, Jackson gave a step toward the door of Lilly's house. If his estimations were right, it would take some more time for Miley to finish her driving test, and until then, he and Lilly could do some things, like planning where they would go for their walk. If Lilly had already finished her own shower, that is. After all, girls took more time showering than boys.

Seeing only one way to find out, Jackson rang the bell.

A moment later, Lilly's mother opened the door.

"Hello, Jackson." she greeted.

"Good morning, Mrs. Truscott." Jackson greeted with a small nod, trying to be as polite as possible, and trying to ignore the slight nervousness inside him.

While he wasn't as uneasy now in front of Lilly's mother as he had been when he and Lilly started dating, he still got a little bit nervous whenever he and she were alone - afraid that she'd go into what he called 'mother hen mode'. Fortunately, Lilly's mother didn't seem to notice his nervousness - nor did she immediately turn on her mother hen mode.

"If you're coming to meet Lilly, she hasn't finished her shower yet. But she'll be done soon. Do you want to come in while you wait?"

Giving a brief nod, Jackson wiped his feet on the mat and then walked in.

"You can sit down." Mrs. Truscott said, gesturing to the couch. "Like I said, Lilly will be done soon."

"Thank you, ma'am." Jackson said, sitting down hesitantly. Before he and Lilly had started dating, he'd never been in her house, and even now, being here was another thing that made him slightly uneasy. Fortunately, it was another thing that Mrs. Truscott either chose to ignore or didn't notice.

"So... how have you been?" Jackson started hesitantly.

"Fine, thank you." she replied. "And you?"

"The same." Jackson replied. "Still in school... still studying... I guess everything is mostly the same."

Mrs. Truscott nodded.

"That's good." she said. "Do you already know at which university you're going?"

Jackson briefly wondered why Mrs. Truscott chose that matter.

"I'll most likely go to Malibu Community College." Jackson replied. "If I went farther than that, I'd have to move, and well, then I'd have to break up with Lilly."

He added the last bit somewhat fearfully, although for which reason, he couldn't fathom. Fortunately, Mrs. Truscott didn't seem fazed - in fact, she appeared almost impressed, as though she had been testing him, and he had passed.

"It's very kind of you to think about Lilly's feelings in that matter, Jackson." she said. "Many boys your age wouldn't care about that."

Somehow, those words were enough to get Jackson more at ease. Then again, he didn't really know why he'd been nervous when it came to that matter. Although she hadn't made any comments on it, Mrs. Truscott had always been okay with the fact Lilly and Jackson were dating - like everyone else they knew, except for Miley and a few other people.

His small talk with Mrs. Truscott for about five more minutes, at the end of which Lilly came into the living room, wearing a blue top, a pink jacket, black knee-length trousers and pink flip-flops. Jackson noticed she was holding her mobile phone, and that she'd received a message - and that for some reason, she didn't look as perky as she normally was whenever she came to meet him.

However, like usually, the two shared a quick kiss, although they tried to keep it on the low due to the presence of Lilly's mother.

"Are you ready to go?" Jackson asked.

"I'm ready." Lilly replied. "But we can't exactly go for what we had planned."

Jackson gave Lilly an inquiring look at that. Why couldn't they be going for what they had planned? While they hadn't yet thought about where they would go for a walk, they could get there soon. Did she have something in mind?

Reading the question in Jackson's eyes, Lilly explained "Miley sent me a message. Apparently, something went wrong with her driving test. I don't know what it was, but she's asking us to meet her at the beach. We should know then."

His eyes widening for a moment, Jackson repeated, "She's asking 'us'? That doesn't really sound like her."

Lilly rolled her eyes slightly, but the gesture wasn't meant for Jackson.

"Alright, she's only asking me." Lilly said, getting what he meant. "But she said that if it has to be, you can come along."

Jackson gave a slight smile. Only Miley to actually go through the trouble of saying that on an SMS.

"In that case, we'd better go." Jackson said.

He didn't add 'the sooner we get that done with, the sooner we can go for our walk', but Lilly didn't need to hear that. She most likely had already realized that bit was implicit in the first sentence.

After saying goodbye to Mrs. Truscott, Lilly and Jackson walked out, ready to meet Miley and find out what had gone wrong with her test. Hopefully, it would be nothing that would interfere with their plans for the day.

* * *

Jackson's hope had been shared by Lilly - but unfortunately, it had also been in vain. As soon as they got to Miley, she'd explained them what had happened in the test, saying that the man making the exam had been even more of a pig than Jackson had been before he and Lilly had started dating. Because she'd gotten mad at him, the man making the exam had automatically failed her - which Lilly had thought it was supremely unfair. Still, that fact by itself wouldn't be much of a problem, if not for the whole 'congratulations Miley business' Oliver had set up. And if that wasn't enough by itself, Amber had later showed up, with her driver's license and a breathtaking car. Because of that, Miley had ended up not telling them the truth - which had lead to her coming up with a plan to get her driver's license.

Fortunately, this plan didn't follow Miley's rule of bad accent, sticky food, and dumb costumes. Instead, it only involved waiting in line, and when Miley got there, she would try to be persuasive enough for them to let Miley repeat the exam on the same day, even considering she had to wait for two weeks. The only role Lilly had was to give her moral support, but Miley appeared to think that part of the plan was ruined with Jackson present - after all, as soon as he'd known Miley's plan involved Lilly, he'd volunteered to go with her, 'to make sure that if she had to get embarrassed, at least she'd have someone who supported her embarrassed alongside her' according to his words. Knowing that, Lilly had immediately told him she complimented him on how sweet he had been

Then, it had just been about waiting. And although it had been a rather long wait, by now the only person in front of them was a tall, burly man in a fine suit, surrounded by men in black suits, both of them taller but less musculr. Seeing as the burlier man appeared to be the only one who truly wanted something, the other two were meaningless. Still, the simplicity of the plan didn't seem to make it likely to fail than most of the others. Only Miley didn't seem capable of realizing it.

"You really they're gonna let you retake the test on the same day?" Lilly finally voiced the question that had been bugging her since she had known of Miley's plan.

"They have to." Miley said. "If I don't drive myself to that beach party tonight, my life will be miserable."

_Right._ Lilly thought. _Only you to put in so much drama, Miley._

"What are you talking about? You're Hannah Montana."

"Yeah, that doesn't count." Miley said, waving her hand as though to brush the point off.

Lilly thought otherwise, but she kept quiet. After all, trying to get Miley out of moving on with her plan was bound to be a wasted effort.

"Okay, I'm just gonna tell the lady what happened." Miley explained. Then, waving toward the lady at the window, she said, "Look at that sweet face. She'll definitely make an exception."

"No." the lady at the window immediately said.

"You were saying?" Jackson asked Miley, unconsciously echoing Lilly's thought.

"Rules are rules, bucko." the lady said, giving him what Miley called the 'disapproving noodle neck'.

"But I am the governor of California!" the man argued, his foreign accent plain for everyone.

Lilly, Miley, and Jackson exchanged awed looks at that. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the governor of California, standing in front of them for an hour, and they hadn't known?

Well, if not even he hadn't gotten the lady to make an exception, Miley would have no chance for sure.

"And I am the queen of this window." the lady pointed out. "Your appointment was scheduled for 12:20, it's 12:22." Making a deeper voice, she added, "Your appointment has been terminated." Then, in her normal voice, "That's right, I've been there."

"I will be back."

Lilly couldn't help but to feel a chill run through her at the terminator's catchphrase. The lady at the window, however, seemed unaffected.

"Not for the next two weeks you won't!" she shouted at Schwarzenegger as he retreated with his bodyguards. "Next!"

"I'm so dead." Miley said.

Lilly tried her best to come up with something reassuring, but speech seemed to have left her. And after all, that wasn't a surprise. If not even the Governor of California could get the lady to make an exception, how could a sixteen years old girl do it?

Miley appeared to think the same, but either way she moved forward – only to be stopped when the lady's cell phone rang.

"Yea." she said, apparently sounding just slightly annoyed at being interrupted.

Then, her tone changing to a slightly distressed one, she said, "Honey, please, the Hannah concert is sold out. If Mommy could get you better seats you know that she would."

Both Lilly and Miley turned to each other with smiles on their faces. If this lady really meant what she said, perhaps there was a way for Miley to get her license – or at least, a license, considering Miley and Hannah weren't supposed to be the same person.

"And Hannah is very much alive." Miley replied.

Or at least she would be, when Miley got to change her outfit.

* * *

Some time later, Miley, Lilly, and Jackson were again on like with only one person ahead of them before their turn would come, dressed as Hannah, Lola and Bucky respectively. It had been hard to get through their house without Robbie Ray noticing, but fortunately they had managed to do so, because he had been busy organizing his hair products. It had also been hard to get to the DMV without being spotted, but they had managed to do so, thanks to wearing jackets with a hood and sunglasses. Hopefully, getting Hannah's driver's license would also be easy.

"Next!" the lady at the window finally called.

Hannah, Lola and Bucky moved forward, all of them removing their sunglasses, and Hannah pushing her hood off her head.

"Hello." Hannah said as she smoothed her hair down.

"Oh my gosh, it's Hannah Montana!" the lady said, her tone almost as excited as that of one of the younger Hannah fans.

"Sssshhhh." Hannah said as she put her hood back on. Then, she carried on in a hushed tone, "Today I am not an international pop sensation. I am just another citizen here to take my driver's test."

"How refreshing is that?" Lola piped in. "Standing in line, waiting your turn, she's just a…"

"Are you talking?" the lady said, her look even sterner than the one she'd given Arnold Schwarzenegger.

"Oh no." Lola immediately said.

Bucky tensed up at her side, but Lola grabbed his arm, both to calm him down and to make sure he wouldn't do anything rash. For once, one of Miley's plans had a chance at working, but even so, it was a lot better if they didn't try to screw it up.

"Oh no…" Hannah said as though she'd just found out something disastrous.

Lola gasped and put her hand in front of her mouth to emphasize the point.

"I must've left my paperwork at home and grabbed these…" Hannah produced two pieces of pink paper. "… complimentary backstage passes by mistake. What ever will I do now?"

And for the final blow, she waved the backstage passes in front of her face, mustering her puppy dog look at the same time.

"Oh, you don't worry your talented little head about that." the lady said. "It'll be just a minute."

The lady turned away, but she'd only given two steps before coming back and trying to snatch the backstage passes off Hannah's hand.

"Oh no no no." Hannah said as she pulled the backstage passes backwards.

"Okay." the lady said, before going away again.

Now that she could speak, Lola decided to ask another question: about the only flaw that she could see in Hannah's plan to get her license.

"Wait a minute." she said. "Let's say you do get the license. How are you gonna drive to the party without your dad noticing your car's missing?"

"Simple." Hannah replied. "Every Friday night Daddy goes to the gym, runs on the treadmill for ten minutes, and then rewarding himself at Busko's House of Chicken and Pies."

Lola nodded, having perfectly understood what Hannah meant - but there was another thing she didn't understand.

"Listen, can I ask you something?" Lola said as she turned to Bucky.

"Sure." Bucky replied.

"If your father appears to give so little importance to keeping fit and so much importance to keeping his belly stuffed, how does he manage to keep that fit body instead of becoming a soup barrel like Uncle Earl?"

"I don't know." Bucky replied. "It's just one of those mysteries of life one can just keep wondering about."

"Kinda like how you two could fall in love with each other." Hannah piped in from behind them, the usual grossness coming from her.

But neither Lola nor Bucky paid any mind to that comment. If Robbie Ray's fit body was one of those mysteries of life, then Miley's or Hannah's grossness, whether it were Lilly and Jackson or Lola and Bucky displaying affection between each other - was one of those inevitabilities of life they had to live with.

And in the end, it wasn't even among the worse ones.

* * *

Some hours later, Lilly and Jackson were already at the North Beach Party, drinking Seven Up Light at the local bar's counter. For once, Miley's plan had worked perfectly - at least for the moment. Hannah got her driver's license without any problem, and when they all got back to Miley's house, they managed to sneak back to the Hannah closet without being noticed by Robbie Ray.

The only thing that had come across to ruin their evening had been when Rico Suave, that Latino with the mind of a devil, had arrived to the Stewart household and Robbie Ray had given them the news he'd agreed to keep him for the weekend - in exchange for courtside Lakers tickets. He'd also said that the only way for them to go to the party was to take Rico with them - and the task had ended up befalling on Lilly and Jackson, as it would be plain cruel to leave Miley alone on her car with Rico. So, they had taken him, with Miley saying that she'd be going some time after them - apparently to call attention for her arrival in her car.

Fortunately, even if Rico had been the annoying little pest he usually was throughout all of the car drive, shortly after they got to the beach he'd gone off to 'give pretty girls a sample of his 'Rico Aroma'' as he put it. That had left them free to have fun - which at this place consisted mostly of dancing - but right now, they were taking a small break from that and having a drink.

"Damn it." Lilly swore under her breath when she saw the two girls closing in. "I was hoping we wouldn't get to see them for another hour or two."

"Ignore them." Jackson whispered in her ear. "Pretend you didn't see them."

"It's not easy." Lilly said. "You don't know what it is like to have to put up with these two everyday."

Lilly expected Jackson to argue, but much to her surprise, he just shrugged.

"You're right." Jackson said. "I don't."

However, before the disappointed look fully formed, Jackson smiled, and said, "But I know just the thing to make you forget about that."

Before Lilly could say anything else, Jackson grabbed her and pulled her in for a kiss. Lilly smiled, but that was all she had time to do before their lips met. It worked - as soon as their mouths touched, every thought about Amber and Ashley flew out of her mind - but only while she and Jackson kissed, because as soon as they parted, both Seaview High School's meanest girls had stopped there, apparently about to embark on one of those annoying taunts of theirs..

"Oh, look there, it's Tomboy Truscott." Amber said. "Looks like she finally got a boyfriend."

Both Lilly and Jackson rolled their eyes, both at the comment and at the voice. It had been Amber who had spoken. Apparently, that girl just couldn't give anyone a break.

"If I were you, I'd be careful, Lilly." Amber said in mocking gentleness. "He must be one of those desperate guys, to date someone like her."

"And so must she." Ashley piped in. "After all, who'd date a guy like Shorty Stewart?"

"I wouldn't for sure." both of them said.

Lilly grit her teeth as both of them made their 'Ooo, tsss."

Jackson however, didn't seem affected, "That's right." Jackson said. "I'm short, and Lilly's a tomboy."

Then, locking his eyes on Amber's upper lip, he added, "But at least, she doesn't have a moustache thicker than Uncle Earl's."

As thought that was all she needed to perk up, Lilly said "Hoy, Jackson, are those hairs, or did Ashley's neck suddenly gain moss?"

The two of them pretended to lock their eyes on something on Ashley's neck.

"Eww!" Lilly and Jackson chorused.

Amber and Ashley scowled at them, but they appeared to have run out of insults, because they just turned away smugly – only to get their compact mirrors out and look desperately for the flaws Lilly and Jackson had pointed out.

"Nice one, Jackson." Lilly said.

"It's only what I've seen you and Miley doing." Jackson said. "And it seems to work. From the way I see it, now they'll be busy for a while."

"They sure will!" Lilly chirped. "Now… where were we?"

Instead of answering, Jackson started leaning toward her. Lilly did the same to him, but before their lips met, a voice called, "Lilly! Jackson!"

Stopping right before they kissed, Jackson and Lilly turned toward the voice. Fortunately this time it was only Oliver and Joannie, walking toward the two of them.

"What's up, Oliver?" Lilly asked.

"Did any of you see Miley?" he asked, looking slightly worried.

"No." Jackson replied. "Now that you mention it, we didn't see her yet."

Lilly looked at her watch. The party had started an hour ago.

_An hour ago? _Lilly thought. _But in that case, how can it be that she didn't arrive yet?_

"Well, she'd better come soon at the wheel of that car of hers." Joannie grumbled. "I can't wait for someone to get Amber to lie low for a while."

"I'll call her." Lilly volunteered.

While the others waited, Lilly took out her cell phone and dialled Miley's number. But the call didn't even pick up, going directly to the voicemail.

"Her phone's dead." Lilly explained as she shoved her cell phone back into her pocket, growing even more uneasy.

Her unease started to get contagious - so much so that by now even Joannie, who still wasn't all that fond of Miley, looked somewhat worried. It was still a farther cry from the old days, when she'd laughed at Miley after the disaster at that hockey game.

"Hey, why don't you try the Ha…" Oliver started suggesting, but then, he cut himself off. It was obvious enough he'd been about to say 'the Hannah phone'.

Lilly did her best not to glare at Oliver for him being about to mention 'Hannah Montana' in front of Joannie, who still didn't know Miley's secret - and didn't really need to know so far, in Lilly's opinion. If she and Oliver ever took their relationship far enough, perhaps Joannie would know the secret someday - but not yet.

Out of the corner of her eye, Lilly saw Jackson giving Oliver a look almost as stern as hers. But she also saw that Joannie was looking at Oliver as if she was waiting for him to finish his sentence. Not wanting her to press further into that matter, Lilly said, "Frankly, Oliver, talking about trying that guy's hat when we're talking about Miley?" she said, pointing to a guy a few meters to her left who was wearing a blue cap. "Don't you think that's an improper time?"

Oliver got a confused look on his face for a moment, but then, realizing the underlying message Lilly sent with her eyes, he said, "Right, Lilly. We should be thinking about knowing where Miley is, not about hats."

"But what can we do then?" Joannie asked. "I don't exactly think getting into a car and driving around is a good option."

Lilly wanted to argue against that point - but she found no argument available to her. Miley could be anywhere between their house and the North Beach, but she could also have somehow decided to go somewhere else and not having realized her mobile phone wasn't charged.

"I guess Joannie has a point." she said, downcast. "I guess I'll call her house number and see if she somehow decided to not come."

Lilly again took out her mobile phone and pressed the proper buttons. Then, she put her phone against her ear, but with no more success than when she tried Miley's mobile phone.

"She's isn't home either." she said.

"What do you suggest we do, then?" Oliver asked.

"I don't know." Lilly said.

"Neither do I." Jackson added, sounding quite concerned as well. "We could try to go around the party and ask if someone else has seen Miley, if we haven't simply missed her arrival."

The other three nodded. It did seem like the only thing they could possibly do at the moment.

"But what if it no one at this party has seen Miley?" Lilly asked.

Jackson hesitated a long time before answering.

"I don't know." he finally said. "I guess we could try to go and look for her, but if we do that, it can raise quite a lot of attention, and we may end up making the situation even worse - if not for us, then for Miley when she shows up."

Then, as if he thought he should give a better answer, he said, "If we don't find her after searching around here, the only thing we'll have left to do is to wait. As unpleasant as the idea is."

Lilly grimaced. It did seem like an unpleasant idea, to wait around for Miley, all the while imagining all the kinds of things that could have happened or be happening to her, for her not to be here.

With a supreme effort, Lilly pushed those thoughts out of her mind. That option simply wasn't one that she could accept. No matter for how long they could have to wait, Miley would turn up in the end, perfectly alright. Besides, they didn't have to simply wait around just yet. After all, they still hadn't tried the first option Jackson had pointed out before having to follow the second - if the first didn't work.

"Alright then." Lilly nodded. Turning to Oliver, she said, "You and Joannie can search on that side, Jackson and I search on that one."

Both couples set out toward their destinations. Lilly hoped they had simply missed Miley's arrival, and that she was indeed somewhere on this party, having fun like everyone else.

* * *

It didn't work. In the end, no one had seen Miley at the party. Which could only mean one thing, she simply hadn't gotten there. In the end, they had ended up following Jackson's second suggestion, and wait to see if Miley would arrive.

But when Jackson gave that suggestion, he hadn't thought they'd end up waiting for so long. As of now, they'd been waiting for more than two hours, and their time of wait kept going up. By now, Oliver was pacing around in worry, Joannie was tapping the floor with her foot in what appeared a mix of worry for Miley and impatience, and Jackson had his arm around Lilly's shoulders, saying soothing words from time to time. Even Rico had stopped spreading his Rico Aroma and come to wait alongside them, a clear sign that he was at least a little bit worried.

"How much longer do you think she's going to take, Jackson." Lilly repeated yet again. "I'm getting really worried here."

"Don't worry, Lilly." Jackson said. "I'm sure that there is some perfect explanation for why Miley isn't here yet. Wherever she is, I'm sure she is alright.

He tried to make his voice as soothing as possible, but he didn't manage to ease Lilly - nor himself, for that matter. He wouldn't ever admit it out loud to anyone, but he was getting worried sick for Miley. He always was whenever something happened to her. It was as though he had some sort of switch - whenever Miley was alright, the two were always bickering and totally engrossed in their sibling rivalry, but if she ever got into trouble, then he played the role of concerned brother. It went to such an extent that sometimes it could be described as bi-polarity, but his father described it as normal sibling relationships. And deep down - although Jackson would never admit to anyone - he didn't want to have another sister in Miley's place.

"Look!" Rico suddenly said. "Isn't that Miley's car?"

All the others looked on the direction Rico indicated. Indeed, it was Miley's car that was coming toward them. But Miley wasn't the one driving it. Instead, her father was. However, Miley was there, and that immediately made Jackson and Lilly let out relieved sighs – even considering both of them knew the reason behind Robbie Ray Stewart's presence. Oliver's sigh was as audible as those of Lilly and Jackson, but Joannie's was almost inaudible - and Rico didn't sigh at all. But his posture relaxed quite obviously, which meant he was also somewhat relieved at seeing Miley alright.

"What's going on?" Joannie asked. "Why is Mr. Stewart at the wheel of Miley's car?"

"I don't know." Oliver said. "But we're soon finding out."

"At least she's alright." Lilly said. "That's all that matters now."

Jackson saw Miley and their father exchanging a few words - only to have him grabbing a loudspeaker when he finished. If Jackson was making the right guess, Miley wouldn't be alright for much longer.

"Hey, everybody!" he said. "It's Miley Stewart's Daddy, dropping her off at the party. Because she didn't get her license!"

Joannie immediately scowled, while Oliver scratched his head, as though he was taking some time to understand the situation. Rico gave little devilish snickers that sounded every bit as mean as his standard 'Mwahahahaha'. Lilly gave a sympathetic smile at Miley, while Jackson let out another sigh of relief. Sure, Miley was going to suffer for some days after this, but at least she was fine. And before the week was over, everyone would just forget about that matter. They always did on high school.

His father then said something to Miley inside the car, before turning back forward. When he noticed all five of them were there, he pointed at them, and then pointed toward Jackson's car, parked only about thirty feet away from there.

Getting what his father meant, Jackson said, "I guess we'd better go home. The party is nearly over by now anyway, and if we don't leave soon, then Miley's gonna end up getting the first brunt of their wrath" saying 'their' Jackson gestured toward the party's location, from where a mob of approaching students could be heard. "And at any rate, we just may end up taking stray blows."

And no matter what anyone among their group could be thinking about the reason for Miley's lateness, or at the reveal they'd just gotten, everyone agreed with him.

* * *

**Alright. Thank you all for reading. Now... just please read my author's note, as your answers to it might help improving this fanfic.**

**One of the reasons why I took so long with this chapter was because I had a bit of a problem with it's lack of plot. It has missing scenes, and it has bits of the episode to make this a little bit more connected, but well... this is one of the episodes that, I think, doesn't end up as all that influenced by the fact Lilly and Jackson are dating - and for that matter, so are quite a lot of them of the third season, mainly up to the next. **

**This time, I followed the missing scenes thing... but well, what do you want to see for the next chapter? Some sort of 'all new episode' or for me to skip directly for the first episode that would be really changed by the fact Lilly and Jackson are dating? I know it sounds like a little bit of a stupid question to ask... but when I have writer's block, I sometimes say stupid things.**

**For the record, seeing as this chapter addresses Miley's concern about ending up dateless... who do you think Miley should end up with? With Jake, with Travis, or with Oliver? I mean, I asked about those three because to me it seems like they are the most popular choices for Miley's pairing in the Hannah Montana universe. And while I do have some ideas on that matter, I'm curious about my readers' opinions. **

**And by the way, for those who don't think Miley and Oliver should end up together, do you think Oliver should end up with any particular girl we see in any of the episodes? Just for the record, have in attention that in this fanfic, Oliver and Lilly ending up together is not an option. **

**Oh, and by the way, I do know that Joannie hasn't appeared in the original "Ready, Set, Don't Drive" episode, but well... to me it looks a little bit like the Hannah Montana writers were always forgetting Oliver and Joannie were dating, then remembering again, then forgetting again, until their break up in "Papa's Got a Brand New Friend". I say this because Oliver's seen looking at and trying to flirt with other girls while he and Joannie are supposed to be dating - or so it seems to me. While I don't consider myself better than the Hannah Montana writers, I try not to make it seem as though there are unfaithful couples - it sets a bad example, I guess. Also, for someone who's dating Oliver, Joannie seems a little bit too absent from the episodes between the time she and Oliver started dating and the time they broke up. So I included her in here. **

**And well, while I do know that Joannie and Miley are supposed to get along bad, in "Sweet Home Hannah Montana" they are friendly enough toward each other for Joannie to consider having a sleepover at Miley's house, so I just went under the assumption they eventually warmed up to each other.  
**

**Well... thank you for bearing with me. I hope you enjoy this chapter. Well... please review. Constructive criticism is welcome... but please don't insult. **


	3. Chapter 3: A matter of real love

**Well, here it is a new chapter. I'm sorry that it took so much time to update this, but I was having problems to decide about which episode this chapter was going to be about. At first, it was going to be about 'Killing Me Softly With His Height' but then, there were too much problems coming from it, so I ended up making it about 'Would I Lie to You, Lilly?". I'm sorry for skipping so many episodes, but most of them just wouldn't be changed enough by the fact Lilly and Jackson are dating, and the only one that would change turned out as too complicated to write.**

**So, I go directly to the sixth episode. This time, there are some actual diferences. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 3 – A matter of real love**

Robbie Ray Stewart sat on the comfortable couch in his living room, soaking in every bit of the peace and quiet that ruled his house in this Sunday afternoon. Miley and Jackson had gone with Oliver and Lilly to the Rock and Roll fashion awards, and Robbie had decided to take the chance to spend a quiet day. While he didn't feel totally comfortable with letting both of his children out of sight at an event that gathered celebrities, he'd made a vow to himself about not going back to the Rock and Roll fashion awards unless it was absolutely necessary. He'd had more than enough of such a ceremony when he went there for the first and last time, and this wasn't a case where his presence was absolutely necessary. His two kids and their best friends (or in Jackson's case, girlfriend) were experienced enough to know as things worked at such events. After all, heartbreaking as it could be, they were growing up.

For a moment, Robbie thought about how it wouldn't be that long before Miley and Jackson were totally grown up, but he managed to force that down. Thinking about such a thing was far from pleasant, even if it meant he had accomplished his mission as a father. But he was a single father, and once Jackson and Miley were out of the house, he'd be alone. And he'd be lying if he said the idea was pleasant.

Trying to repress himself from drowning his head in such thoughts, Robbie turned back to the newspaper in front of him, displaying the page with the crosswords.

"Let's see…" he muttered, tapping the pen against his lip. "Seven letters, big primate with black hair and a pot belly…"

A harsh knock sounded at the door. Robbie looked up from his newspaper, and spotted a black-haired man, who looked like a human soup barrel, peering into his house, an angry look on his face.

"That would be Dontzig." Robbie cursed, putting the newspaper aside and walking up to open the door.

_If he was a little bit thinner._ Robbie added as an afterthought. Dontzig's belly was much bigger than a mere 'pot belly'.

"Alright, Stewart, that's it." Dontzig shouted as soon as Robbie opened the door. "We've got to solve this problem."

"You're totally right there." Robbie said. "We've got to solve your weight problem. I recommend a few sit ups a day and cutting back on the food. It should do the trick."

For only a moment, Dontzig kept quiet, apparently slightly confused at Robbie's words.

"Don't be an idiot, Stewart!" Dontzig exclaimed when he got his voice back. "I was talking about your tree!"

Robbie Ray cursed under his breath. Half the times Dontzig came to his house, he came to complain about the poor tree. Or, more accurately, about the leaves that it dropped on various spots of Dontzig's property.

"The thing keeps dropping leaves on my hot tub, on my swimming pool, on my garden, on my car – basically, everywhere surrounded by my hedge!" Dontzig shouted, throwing one leaf that had once belonged to Robbie's tree into the floor.

"That's just because it doesn't like what's surrounded by your hedge, and gets ill." Robbie countered. "Exactly like everything that gets near you or anything related to you, in fact."

Dontzig remained quiet for a long moment, apparently not having a good enough countering for that. Robbie smiled inwardly, knowing he'd just scored a point.

"Oh yeah?" Dontzig finally shouted. "Then you'd better give your tree some medicine, Stewart, because if it stays ill for much longer, I'll make an official complaint. And I mean it!"

After that, it appeared Dontzig had run out of arguments, because he simply turned around and walked away, an angry look on his face.

"And Robbie Ray scores again!" Robbie proclaimed proudly, before closing the door and walking back to his couch.

When he sat down, he picked up his newspaper again, and wrote the proper word, which was 'gorilla'. Then, he moved on to the next one.

"Let's see…" he muttered. "Exclamation of relief, four letters…"

"Whew!" a voice suddenly said behind him.

"That's it!" Robbie said, writing down the word. But then, he realized that someone else had spoken. His daughter had spoken, to be precise.

Turning around, Robbie saw Jackson, Miley, Lilly, and Oliver coming in through the large door by the piano. They were all dressed as their alter-egos (Bucky, Hannah, Lola, and Mike respectively), and looked as though they were slowly recovering from a scare.

"That was a close one." Miley added.

Remembering Dontzig's short visit, Robbie Ray understood what she meant. Apparently, Dontzig had nearly caught her and her friends dressed as their alter-egos. Fortunately, it appeared that, although it had been a close call, Dontzig hadn't seen or suspected anything – or everyone would be much more upset.

"Hey there." Robbie greeted, again putting his newspaper away and getting up to greet them. "How were the Rock and Roll fashion awards?"

"Spectacular!" Miley said with a huge smile.

"Nice" Lilly added, her expression also quite happy, but not as much as Miley's.

"Bearable." Jackson said. He sounded like he wanted to have added the 'un' before the 'bearable', but hadn't done so for some reason, most likely because Lilly was there.

"Endless." Oliver said.

_Well, that's what can be called diverse opinions._ Robbie thought.

The opinions could be diverse, but they weren't over, because Oliver kept his own tirade. "I mean, four hours to discover who won the best knee socks? Who takes all that time to decide such a thing?"

_The same people who took five hours to decide on the best elbow gloves._ Robbie thought. Apparently, it had been a good thing that he hadn't gone, as judging from the kids' speech, the ceremony hadn't changed at all since he'd last gone to it.

"Don't mind him, Daddy." Miley said, stepping forward. "He's like that just because of his swag bag."

Well, if the swag bags still contained the items Robbie Ray remembered from last time he'd gone, it was little wonder that Oliver was annoyed.

"How exactly do you want me to be?" Mike asked, opening his swag bag. "There's nothing for men here. Moisturizers, mousses, root rejuvenator…"

"If you don't want them, you can give them to me." Miley said. "I can always use those."

"It's not as if I have many options, is it?" Oliver asked, slightly annoyed.

But he did give Miley the swag bag. After all, like he'd so smartly said, he didn't have many options.

"If it serves you as any consolation, you can keep this neck cushion." Miley said, opening Oliver's bag and delivering him the neck cushion that was inside it. By miracle, was dark-blue, plain enough for not to be standardized for men or women. "It will come in handy during the class trip for Washington."

Oliver's mood appeared to brighten up a little bit at that comment. Apparently, he thought a neck cushion was better than nothing. Robbie noticed, however, that Lilly had gained a strange look on her face when the class trip to Washington was mentioned. It was almost… guilty. But why would Lilly feel guilty about that trip to Washington?

"What's wrong, Lilly?" Robbie asked. He knew he could be making a mistake, but he'd gotten worried. And one of his natural traits was to reveal his worry for people. It was only a pity he sometimes couldn't get things across smoothly enough.

Lilly didn't answer him. Instead, she just shifted uncomfortably in her spot, looking at the floor.

"Nothing, Mr. Stewart." she finally said. "I'm just not going."

At that comment, Miley raised her eyes from her swag bag and locked them on her best friend.

"You're not going? Why aren't you going? How is it possible that you're not going? You can't not be going."

Miley said all of that so quickly that this time even Robbie had trouble understanding it.

"You better slow down there, bud, I think some untrained ears here aren't pickin' up your words." Robbie advised.

Indeed, both Oliver and Lilly had their faces scrunched up in concentration as they tried to work out Miley's sentences. Only Jackson looked like he'd understood Miley's sentences on the first try as well.

"Repeating Miley's question in an understandable manner, why aren't you going, Lilly?" Robbie asked. "Doesn't your mother let you?"

"No." Lilly said in a slightly embarrassed tone. "It's just that she can't pay for it. We're still a little low on money after paying for my eye surgery."

Robbie nodded. He remembered Lilly had her eyesight corrected about two months ago, shortly after the whole issue with Miley and her driver's license. It had cost quite a bit – at least for Lilly's mother, who wasn't exactly rich, although she also wasn't poor. But he still got the strange feeling that there was more to that story than what Lilly was letting on – and for some reason, she didn't really want to say it.

"Why didn't you say so before?" Miley said. "I can pay for you."

"No thank you, Miley." Lilly replied, looking even more uncomfortable and guilty after that. "I'm not going on a trip when you are the one who pays for it."

Again, Robbie Ray had the impression there was more to that story, but this time, he didn't make any more questions. He'd learned his mouth could be too big at times.

However, Miley didn't seem to be satisfied with Lilly's answer.

"Why can't you let me pay for it?" Miley tried to insist. "You're my best friend. I can pay for it."

"If she says she doesn't want you to pay for it, don't insist." Jackson said. "Some of us like to pay for their own things, you know?"

"As if you have any moral to speak." Miley said. "You always ask Daddy for money whenever you go on a date."

Jackson glared at Miley after that comment.

"Not anymore." he said.

That much was true. Surprise of surprises, Jackson had never asked him or anyone else for money whenever he went out with Lilly. He also hadn't asked for money when he bought Lilly a new skateboard for a Christmas gift, almost a month ago. It was almost as if he was trying to be independent. Or, like Robbie had heard someone say, to 'grow up inside'. It was another thing revealing that dating Lilly was good for his son.

"And for your information, I already promised Lilly I'd pay for a trip to Washington." Jackson added.

"With which money?" Robbie asked, unable to help himself. "I highly doubt your payment at Rico's allows you to pay for a trip that costs five hundred dollars when you paid for a skateboard that cost two hundred and fifty less than a month ago."

"I didn't say I was going to pay for that particular trip." Jackson said. "I said I was going to pay for a trip – one where I go with her."

"Brother in a wig that looks made of straw say what?" Miley said.

"What's the surprise?" Jackson asked. "It's normal for a couple to go on a trip together. If Lilly wants to see Washington, I don't mind taking her there."

"And you actually agreed?" Miley said, turning to Lilly. "Going on a trip to Washington? With Jackson?"

"Why shouldn't I?" Lilly asked, clearly surprised by the question. "I want to go there, and if I get to go with my boyfriend, it's a bonus. I don't mind waiting some time for it. Sure, I'll probably have to get a job to pay for my half of it, but I don't mind that either."

That appeared to be the point where Jackson had some issues.

"But Lilly, I already said I could pay…" Jackson started.

"For half of it." Lilly cut him off. "We already talked about this, remember? We share the experiences, we share the price."

"Right." Jackson said. "Each pays half of it. If that's really what you want."

From the look on Jackson's face, it was obvious to Robbie Ray that his son didn't feel comfortable about not paying for the whole trip, but he respected his girlfriend's independence enough to do as she asked in regards to that issue. But there was another issue that needed to be solved: the fact that Lilly and Jackson had very little experience about looking after themselves. If they were going to a place like Washington just the two of them, they could get in trouble. But by his calculations, they weren't going there anytime soon. Robbie had some more time to give his son some additional formation on how to look after himself and his girlfriend in a place like Washington – and hopefully Heather would do the same to her daughter.

Meanwhile, Jackson turned to Lilly, and said, his look becoming mischievous,

"And speaking of wanting, I can think of something else that you want."

Robbie looked away to give them privacy. He knew exactly what the two of them were going to do. Part of him wanted to shout that there were other people in the room, but he repressed himself from doing so. After all, they weren't exactly in public – and they weren't going to make out, only to kiss.

"Really?" Lilly asked. "And what would that be?"

"I don't know… how about this?"

Not waiting for Lilly's answer, Jackson leaned forward and kissed her. Trying to be polite, Robbie Ray looked even further away. By coincidence, he looked toward Miley, right on time to see her putting her hand in front of her mouth, as if she was trying not to vomit. Even considering that Jackson and Lilly's relationship had already lasted months, she still appeared repulsed by it.

_Well, at least this time she's repulsed in a silent way._ Robbie thought.

Lilly and Jackson finally parted.

"Was this anywhere near what you wanted?" he asked.

"Yes." Lilly replied. "Oh yes."

"And how was it?"

Lilly smiled widely. "Terrific. And I didn't even have to pay for it."

As if that word had been enough to send a sudden thought into Jackson's mind, he checked his watch. As he noticed the time, he said, "Speaking of payment, perhaps I'd better go to Rico's. My shift starts in ten minutes."

With that, Jackson went upstairs to get changed out of Bucky Kentucky's outfit.

"I'd better go as well." Lilly said. "I promised my father I would have dinner with him today."

With that, Lilly went up the stairs, the downcast look now almost inexistent. Taking that as his cue to continue his crosswords, Robbie picked up his newspaper again.

He was about to sit down again, but he noticed Miley had a peculiar look on her face.

"What's on your mind, Miles?" Oliver asked, clearly having noticed the same thing.

"Nothing special." Miley replied. "I'm just trying to figure out some way of paying Lilly's trip for Washington without her finding out."

"If I were you I wouldn't do it." Oliver advised. "Lilly doesn't really like it when someone tries to disrespect her independence."

"Well, if she takes it after her mother, that doesn't surprise me." Robbie Ray said.

He remembered far too well the argument between him and Heather Truscott over who got to pay for dinner. Fortunately, they'd eventually made up, but Heather had simply been too independent of a woman for them to ever get to an agreeement that allowed them to have a relationship.

Apparently, it had all been for the best, as Lilly's relationship with Jackson would be a bit awkward if they had become step siblings.

Robbie was brought out of his musings when he noticed that Miley didn't really seem deterred by Oliver's comment.

"You're right." Miley agreed. "She may get mad at me if she knows I was behind it. But she can't get mad at me if she doesn't know I was responsible for it."

Robbie Ray frowned as he turned his attention back to the crosswords. He didn't really like where the whole thing seemed to be going.

* * *

The day after, Miley sat at her desk in her classroom, listening to Mr. Corelli, dressed as George Washington, giving one of his usual speeches, one of the sort that she – and everyone in the classroom, for that matter – could never really understand the reason about. Probably, they weren't really meant to have a reason, they were little more than cheap excuses for Mr. Corelli to put his weird costumes on. Of course, some of his speeches did have a concrete meaning to them, but this didn't really seem to be the case. If Miley was forcing herself to pay attention, she could grasp some more of Mr. Corelli's speech than what she was currently getting, but she was more focused on what would happen when the class finished.

By then, her plan to give Lilly the trip to Washington would be done. And hopefully it would be successful. Even if Lilly wanted to go to Washington with Jackson, she probably wouldn't say no to making an unexpected earlier trip.

Meanwhile, Mr. Corelli looked like he was about to finish his speech,

"So, when you future leaders of America visit Washington, my city… remember, all men are created equal, never tell a lie, and when picking your costume…" at that, Mr. Corelli stood up, revealing that his outfit seemed about to explode "…remember to check the size."

Miley rolled her eyes. If Mr. Corelli cut back on the food, the size of the costumes wouldn't be such a big problem.

Fortunately, by then the bell rang. Miley smiled at the sound. Her plan was about to be done.

Right as she expected it to happen, Mr. Corelli called, "Uh, Lilly, do you have a sec?"

"Yeah…" Lilly said, clearly confused, as she walked over to his desk. "…what's up, Mr. C.?"

As Lilly walked up to Mr. Corelli's desk, Miley followed her classmates out of the classroom. But when she got to the door, she stopped, just to see if her plan would actually be successful. Oliver and Joannie, both of them already knowing of her idea, stayed behind with her.

"Are you sure that your idea's going to work, Miley?" Joannie asked, as if she didn't agree with the look on Miley's face. "Lilly may not buy it."

"If I know her right, she'll get too excited with going to Washington to think too much about the matter." Miley replied.

Then again, there had also been a time when Miley thought she knew Lilly well enough to know she'd never look at Jackson. However, she had been wrong on that point.

"For your sake, I hope she gets." Oliver stated. "If she sees through it… well, let's just say I wouldn't want to be the one standing in her path."

Miley noticed that Joannie shot Oliver a disapproving look at that comment. Apparently, she didn't like his comment – as if she thought it was cowardly of him to even think such a thing. But Oliver didn't seem to notice Joannie's look. Nor did he seem too concerned with what Joannie thought, for that matter – if he was, he certainly wouldn't have made such a commnent. Apparently, their relationship was not being as perfect as they had expected it to be at first. But Miley was too concerned with the outcome of her own plan to think about that particular subject, at least for now.

Meanwhile, Mr. Corelli had just given Lilly the fake news that the budget allowed for one extra student to go to Washington. But there was something wrong: Lilly wasn't leaping up in joy.

"Really?" she asked, in a tone that sounded too indifferent for Miley's taste.

"That's it, lucky girl!" Mr. Corelli said. "You're the chosen one."

"Why me?" Lilly asked.

Mr. Corelli didn't reply. Apparently, he hadn't counted with that question – just like Miley hadn't.

"Because you're well-behaved." Mr. Corelli finally said. "And such a sweet girl. You deserve to go."

Miley frowned. While that hadn't exactly been the worst possible excuse, there were a few better ones. Lilly wasn't the only sweet or well behaved girl in the class, and both Miley and her knew it. Fortunately, Lilly didn't seem to insist about Mr. Corelli's argument.

"Well, Mr. Corelli, no offense meant, but perhaps you can choose some other lucky student." Lilly said. "I'm planning my own trip to Washington. It won't be so soon as the next week… but I think it will be better."

"I get it." Mr. Corelli said. "You and Jackson are planning to go there, right?"

As he said that, he elbowed Lilly playfully, not really looking very teacher-like.

"Yes." Lilly whispered, in a tone that suggested she was blushing, although her face couldn't be seen from Miley's place. "If I went there before him, it wouldn't be fair to him."

Miley cursed under her breath. Apparently, Lilly did not want that much to go to Washington. Either that, or she wanted to go with Jackson much more than she wanted to go with her class.

"Looks like it didn't work." Joannie said to Miley. "Apparently, Lilly prefers a solitary trip with your brother to a class trip."

"I noticed, OK?" Miley said, hoping to get across the fact that she didn't want to talk about that.

At Mr. Corelli's desk, Lilly was turning around to get out of the classroom, but something seemed to get her attention.

"What is this cheque from Miley doing inside your D.C. tour book, Mr. Corelli?" she asked, pulling the cheque out.

_Ups! _Miley thought. _Caught!_

Mr. Corelli stammered for a moment, before saying, "Don't ask me, ask her!"

With that, he stormed out of the classroom, passing by Oliver, Miley and Joannie without even glancing at them.

"Well, we'd better go as well." Oliver said. "I'm getting hungry."

Without giving anyone time to respond, Oliver grabbed Joannie's upper arm and dragged her away. However, Miley still managed to catch a glimpse from the look on Joannie's face before the two disappeared. Apparently, Joannie was going to have a talk with Oliver.

In any other situation, Miley would be deeply sorry for him. But now, she was more concerned about another talk she was about to have with someone.

When Miley turned back around, Lilly was standing in front of her, with her arms crossed, and a glare on her face. Miley almost jumped backwards in startle when she saw the look on her best friend's face. Lilly certainly could look intimidating when she wanted.

"Explain." Lilly said, extending the cheque toward her.

Like Mr. Corelli had done earlier, Miley stammered for a moment, although with her it wasn't because she didn't have an explanation. Instead, it was out of nervousness due to the fact she had been caught.

"I'm waiting…" Lilly insisted.

"Lilly, I knew you wanted to go to Washington, so I just tried to pay for it without finding out, knowing you would have a great time there. And I wanted you to go with me! What's the big deal?"

"Miley, if you want me to go on a trip to Washington with you that much, then…" Lilly looked around, as if to make sure no one was nearby, before whispering, "Lola will just go with Hannah to Hannah's next concert in Washington."

"But why can't you just come with me to this trip?" Miley asked.

"Because I can't pay for it." Lilly said. "And it makes me feel like I'm stealing off you if you're the one who pays. And, like I assume you already know, now that Jackson and I planned to go there, if I go before him, it will ruin my trip with him."

Frustration swelling up inside her, Miley growled and started jumping up and down on the stone floor. Her biggest fear – losing both her best friends – was coming true. First, it had been Oliver, and now, it was Lilly. Both were leaving her for their relationships. And there was nothing she could do about that.

"Miley, calm down, everyone is looking at you!" Lilly said, an alarmed look on her face.

Indeed, several of her schoolmates had stopped to giving her strange looks, as if they thought she was mental.

"I'm sorry." Miley said, forcing herself to stop jumping. "It's just that… I miss my best friend. Both of my best friends. We barely hang out since both you and Oliver are in your own relationships. You have Jackson. Oliver has Joannie. And I…"

Miley was going to tell the truth about that matter, but the words seemed to be failing her. It was almost as if voicing the fact she was alone would make it an irreversible reality.

The alarmed look disappeared from Lilly's face, replaced by a sympathetic one.

"I'm sorry, Miley." she said. "You're right."

"Don't worry about it." Miley said, trying to shrug the matter off. Even if she was alone, she didn't want her best friends to give up anything for her. "I'll survive."

_I only don't know how._ she added in her mind.

Miley hoped Lilly hadn't listened to that particular thought, but Lilly appeared to get some of it from her face, because she said, "Look, if you want, we can talk to Oliver, and plan something where it's only the three of us, like before. Alright?"

"I guess." Miley said. "But I'm not sure Joannie will let Oliver do that."

"Don't worry about Joannie." Lilly insisted. "Even if she doesn't let him, Oliver will come. He hasn't let you down yet, has he?"

That was true. Even now that he was dating Joannie, whenever Miley asked for his help, he always came, even with a girlfriend as possessive and jealous as Joannie. Miley had tried to limit the times she asked Oliver's help, but whenever it was absolutely necessary and she did, he always came.

_I'd just like to know why. _Miley thought.

Then, remembering Lilly was waiting for an answer, she spoke,

"You're right. He hasn't let me down yet."

"And he won't do it now." Lilly insisted. "So, come on, let's have lunch. Then we can talk about what the three of us will do together."

Miley's smile widened. It was true she didn't have her two best friends around as often as she was used to, but she certainly hadn't lost either of them. As long as that didn't happen, she would be alright.

* * *

After classes were done for the day, Lilly walked over to Rico's, to meet Jackson from his shift. He finished classes earlier than her on Mondays, so he worked at Rico's until Lilly finished her classes.

Miley had ended up staying with Oliver, because Joannie had some sort of compromise where Oliver couldn't go, and Miley had decided to take the chance to be with him. Lilly had also taken the chance to go to meet Jackson, and remarkably, Miley hadn't been so bothered by the thought when she was around Oliver. And Oliver hadn't been too bothered by the thought of spending the afternoon with Miley, even considering he had to put up with the huge tantrum that Joannie had thrown when she'd heard about the idea. Remarkably, he had decided to spend the afternoon with Miley in spite of the tantrum Joannie had thrown. After such a display, Lilly couldn't help but to wonder just how much Joannie's relationship meant for him. If Lilly had to make a guess, it wasn't much. If she guessed it right, Oliver's relationship with Joannie wasn't going to last much longer at the rate they were going.

Lilly snapped out of her thoughts when she noticed Rico's shack. Empty boxes of fast food were piled up on the counter. Cans and plastic cups were scattered across the ground, remnants of their contents leaking out of them. Smashed paper napkins and pieces of hot dogs covered the area. All in all, it looked like the place had been raided by a pack of wild monkeys. But it didn't seem like anything serious had happened, as Rico was sitting there, reading a magazine, and with a quite happy look on his face. Clearly, it had been a successful day for the shack. But where was Jackson in the middle of all that mess?

Her question was answered when Jackson got up from behind the counter, throwing boxes of food everywhere. He was completely covered in ketchup, dried cheese, and God knew what else.

"Jackson." Lilly called, running over to him.

Jackson's head snapped up when he heard her voice, but he lowered it again in shame. Apparently, he didn't like the fact Lilly had spotted him looking like that.

"Hi, Lilly." he said in an embarrassed tone. "Sorry for not looking as neat as I should, but I had a rough day at work."

Lilly brushed the matter off. "Never mind that. What happened here? What happened to you?"

"Nothing special." Jackson said. "I had half of the beach here, I was having trouble serving them all at the same time, I asked Rico to do something about it, Rico shouted through a loud speaker that he was selling two hot dogs for the price of one… and this was the result."

"And it ended up with a lot of money in my pocket!" Rico chirped as though he didn't have a concern in this world.

Lilly glared at Rico, trying to get all the anger she felt toward him clear only with her eyes. Meanwhile, Jackson stumbled over the counter, landing on his belly by her side.

"Ouch." he grumbled when he got up, clearly having trouble to do so. Lilly realized that besides being dirty, he was also sore.

"Come on, Jackson." Lilly said, getting a clean paper napkin from the counter and starting to wipe at his face, as she helped him to support his weight. "I'll help you get home and give you a massage."

In spite of the state he was in, Jackson smiled when Lilly spoke.

"I'd like that."

The two of them started walking off, but Rico suddenly sprinted across the counter and jumped in front of them.

"Not so fast!" he shouted, looking like he was only speaking with Lilly. "You can't take him home, and you certainly can't give him a massage! I did this to Jackson for him to get miserable, not for him to get a massage given by a hot girl!"

Lilly glared at him again. The boy clearly had making people miserable as a hobby, but Jackson was his favourite target.

"First, my shift ended ten minutes ago." Jackson stated. "Second, my massage won't just be given by 'a hot girl'. It will be given by my wonderful girlfriend."

Lilly smiled at that statement.

"And third, sorry if your plan to make me miserable didn't work." Jackson finally added, not looking sorry at all.

With nothing else to say, Jackson started walking home. Lilly followed him, hoping to catch him in case his legs faltered.

"I can't handle this!" Rico kept shouting. "Ever since you started dating Lilly, making you miserable has been impossible! This can't go on!"

Jackson looked like he hadn't even heard Rico, but Lilly frowned at the little devil's comments. Unless she was wrong, he was going to try something nasty. Something that would affect not only her, but Jackson as well. And knowing Rico like she knew him, being the target of one of his plans wasn't going to be pleasant.

Lilly could only wonder how unpleasant it would be exactly.

* * *

As Lilly and Jackson left, Rico was left with no other choice but to clean up the entire mess himself. The worker for the next shift was late, but the shack couldn't stop working, if Rico wanted to keep making money. However, the customers wouldn't come if the place looked like a dump.

But before cleaning up, Rico took the time to slam his fist down on the counter and curse to himself. Ever since Jackson started dating Lilly, it was nearly impossible to make him miserable, and even when he managed to make him miserable, Lilly simply had to appear, and Jackson would be happy again. Seriously, what the two of them saw in each other was something Rico would never understand. But in the end, he wasn't all that interested. Jackson was a loser, and Lilly was a stupid blonde. They were fine for each other.

But this couldn't carry on. His happiness was based on making other people miserable, and Jackson was his prime target. At times, Rico regretted he was like that, but it had simply been the way he was created. He didn't know anything else. And that was something no one really understood.

Unfortunately, regretting the fact wasn't going to take him anywhere. It was better if he started cleaning up the place.

"Hi, Rico." a voice greeted behind him. "Do you need some help?"

Looking around toward the voice, Rico saw his classmate, Sarah – 'Saint Sarah' like she was mostly known throughout the school.

"If you don't mind." he said.

"Sure I don't." Sarah said, before starting to pick up garbage with a claw stick.

With Sarah's help, the boxes were all picked up a lot faster than before, and soon, everything was in the trash cans.

"So… what are you doing here?" Rico asked. "Besides picking up garbage, that is."

He didn't really know why he was making small talk – it wasn't much like him – but at the moment he was going to get anything he could to get entertainment, seeing as his hobby of making Jackson miserable didn't appear to have much of a future.

"Nothing special." Sarah said. "I'm just picking up raw materials for my..." she reached into her handbag and took out a round object. "… Jackson sculpture."

Rico actually jumped backwards. The thing Sarah had shown him didn't look like Jackson at all. It looked like what it was: some kind of melon with a mouth drawn on, pieces of orange peel as hair, what looked like red bottle caps for his eyes, and unidentifiable things for ears and nose. Even the real Jackson looked like a hunk when compared to this weird thing.

But why would Sarah be making a 'Jackson sculpture'? Could she still be…

"You're still waiting for him?" Rico asked.

"Rico, I waited six years for the California low-flow toilet initiatives." Sarah stated. "I can wait for Jackson to be emotionally ready for me as well."

Rico let out a gust of air. Poor Jackson. The girl really took her business seriously, so much so that whenever she'd seen Jackson dating, she ruined the date. If she ever knew about how long his relationship with Lilly had been…

As the thought came into his head, Rico smiled like the Cheshire Cat. He already knew how he was going to make Jackson _really_ miserable.

"Oh really?" he asked. "Because I don't think he's interested in you anymore."

"What do you mean?" Sarah asked, clearly confused.

"He's been dating Lilly for the past three months." Rico explained, trying to sound casual. "Haven't you heard about it yet?"

"Lilly?" Sarah echoed, looking outraged. "As in our classmate Lilly Truscott?"

"That's the one!" Rico beamed. "They left here not even twenty minutes ago – and she was going to give him a massage!"

"But that can't be!" Sarah protested. "If he dates her, it will ruin all his emotional preparation for me! He can't date her!"

Without saying anything else, Sarah stormed off – toward Jackson's house, if Rico had to make a guess.

"But he's been dating her!" Rico kept on shouting from his counter. "And he's REALLY HAPPY WITH HER!"

_But soon, he won't be as happy anymore._ Rico thought, rubbing his hands together in satisfaction. Finally, he was going to make Jackson miserable, and more than he'd ever made before. Things were finally going the right way again.

* * *

Not even five minutes later, Robbie Ray Stewart looked up from the new Hannah Montana song he was working on when he heard his door being furiously pounded. His first instinct was to see who it was through the windows, but the blinds were pulled down at the moment. If he wanted to see who it was, it he would have to get up.

But there was one thing he already knew. Whoever was outside was furious.

But who could it be, and why would that person be so mad? Not even Dontzig pounded so hard on the door when he came to complain about the leaves or other stuff.

Robbie Ray set Lucky Lulu down on the couch, and went to open the door. When he did so, he could only catch a glimpse of a brown haired girl wearing spectacles, before she walked in without being invited and pushed him down as easily as a slab of paper, and actually stepped on him three times, before getting in and going upstairs.

"Dang flab it." Robbie moaned, taking his hand to his stomach. "That girl stepped on me harder than Uncle Earl's prize bull."

From what he had managed to see, the girl looked like one of Miley's classmates, Sarah. But what was she doing here? And why had she come in so violently?

* * *

Although Jackson was simply sitting on his bed, he felt capable of swearing that he was in paradise. He'd just had a nice shower, and after drying off and getting on new clothes, Lilly had started giving him one of her famous massages. Currently, she was massaging his shoulders – and Jackson felt in Heaven. For this, he felt like he could get drained at Rico's every day, if it meant Lilly massaging his shoulders afterwards.

"Does that feel good?" Lilly asked him.

"Very good." Jackson whispered, letting out another deep sigh. "Thanks."

"No problem."

Lilly leaned forward and kissed Jackson's cheek, before leaning back up to continue her massage.

At that point, someone kicked the door open, bringing Jackson out of his thoughts, and nearly making him jump up through the ceiling.

After turning his head around toward several spots, Jackson finally managed to focus on the origin of the sound – only to see Sarah standing there, looking apoplectic with rage at the sight of Jackson sitting on his bed, shirtless, with Lilly kneeling behind him and massaging his shoulders.

"Oh no!" Jackson said, feeling a sudden wave of panic rushing over him.

He'd thought the girl had given up her pursuing a long time ago.

Although Jackson never had any romantic feelings for Sarah, he'd once mistakenly dated her for a while, when Rico had a short crush on her. Of course, Rico's crush had worn off (or then, it had been a deliberate trick to get Jackson into trouble) but Sarah appeared determined to wait for Jackson to be emotionally ready for her, and she also seemed far from happy whenever she spotted Jackson dating. In fact, whenever she had spotted Jackson dating, she ruined the date. But he and Sarah hadn't met since shortly before he and Lilly had started dating, and Jackson actually allowed himself to hope that she'd given up. It looked like she hadn't, and now there was no telling to what she would do, having seen Lilly massaging Jackson's shoulders.

"Lilly Truscott, what do you think you were doing with your hands on my Jackson's shoulders?" Sarah shouted.

If it had been Lilly calling him 'my Jackson' Jackson would have been pleased. Being Sarah the one calling him that, he felt somewhere between horrified and disgusted.

"Your Jackson?" Lilly repeated. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's supposed to mean that he's mine!" Sarah shouted, walking up to Jackson's bed, grabbing his upper arm and pulling him away from Lilly. "As soon as he's emotionally ready! And if you're around, you will corrupt him!"

"Sarah, please get out…" Jackson tried to say.

But Sarah wasn't even listening to him. Instead, she was glaring at Lilly. And after her initial amazement, Lilly was returning the glare with full force. Jackson could sense a fight waiting to happen.

"Corrupt him?" Lilly echoed, somewhere between confused and insulted. "Why would I be corrupting him?"

"You're a tomboy!" Sarah shouted. "You let Jackson drive cars that pollute the air instead of ecological ones! You don't have a house with electricity given by solar panels!"

"Sarah…" Jackson tried to insist.

This time, Sarah did hear him speaking, but she whipped her head toward him without giving him the chance to carry on.

"Jackson, you've got to dump Lilly!" she shouted, looking like she was hyperventilating. "She's a bad influence! She'll ruin the process of you getting emotionally ready for me!"

"I don't need to get emotionally ready for you!" Jackson shouted. He didn't really like the idea of breaking her heart, but if he had to do it to get this message across, he would. "I never had a crush on you! I already told you Rico was the one who had a crush on you, but it wore off by the time I told you!"

Of course, this was the same explanation Jackson had tried to give Sarah on all the other times she'd ruined his dates, but it had never worked.

And it also didn't work this time, as Sarah simply laid a hand on his shoulder, and said,

"Jackson, it's alright to be in denial. I trust you will be honest about your feelings for me eventually. But you can't be around other girls to get your mind clouded!"

"I don't have any feelings for you that I need to be honest about!" Jackson insisted. "I love Lilly! I don't care if she doesn't have any of those things you say or that she's a tomboy! I love her!"

Before Sarah could reply, a voice interrupted them.

"What in the Sam Heck is going on here?"

It was his father, walking into his bedroom, with a hand over his belly. Apparently, Sarah had been quite brute to him when she came into the house.

When she saw him, Sarah immediately ran to him.

"Mr. Stewart, you've got to make Jackson listen to reason!" she said. "Your son can't keep dating Lilly!"

"Why do you say that?" his father asked, clearly confused. "Or, for that matter, why should I do as you asked when you just knocked me down and walked over me like I was a mat when I opened the door."

"I'm sorry, Mr. Stewart, but you must…"

"Sarah, please be quiet." he said. For some reason, perhaps because his father was an adult, Sarah obeyed. Meanwhile, his father turned to him and Lilly.

"Now, can you two explain me what's going on here?"

Jackson shrugged – he didn't really know how to explain such a peculiar situation to his father. Lilly, however, started saying,

"I'll explain everything."

"You're not saying anything, you Jackson corrupter!" Sarah shouted, glaring menacingly at Lilly.

"Sarah..." his father interrupted in a quiet, menacing tone. "You're in my house, and you're meant to behave here. Keep quiet."

"But Mr. Stewart…" Sarah tried to say.

However, when she got one of his father's intimidating glances, she went quiet. Jackson didn't know how his father managed to look so intimidating at times, but right now, he was really grateful for that.

"Explain, Lilly." her father said.

"Mr. Stewart, did Jackson ever tell you about that time when Jackson tried to help Rico to win Sarah over and Sarah ended up thinking he liked her?"

After thinking for a moment or two, his father replied, "Yes, he did. But what does that…"

Then, right as the question was about to come out of his lips, he understood.

"Oh, no, does that mean she's still obsessed over him?"

"Yes!" Lilly said.

"I'm not obsessed!" Sarah shouted. "I love him!"

Jackson cursed. Why the girl thought she loved him, he had no idea.

"Sarah, even if you love me, I'm sorry to say it, but I don't love you." he said. "I love Lilly."

"You can't love her!" Sarah shouted.

"I can, and I do." Jackson replied, starting to get honestly angry at that.

"And I love him also." Lilly insisted. "You're the one sparing here."

"Now Lilly, there's no need to be so rough." his father said. "I think Sarah got the message. Now Sarah, if you please, get out of my house."

"But Mr. Stewart…" Sarah tried to say.

"Now, Sarah."

From the look on his father's face, it was clear for Jackson that he wasn't going to discuss the matter any further. Sarah seemed to realize that as well, because she walked out, but right as she got out of the door, she turned around, and said,

"Jackson, I'm going to make you understand not only that I love you, but that you're meant to be with me. And when you do, you'll realize you love me as well."

With that, Sarah walked off.

"Sheesh!" Lilly said. "I was starting to think she'd never walk out of here."

Jackson frowned. He hated to break his girlfriend's happiness, but he had to tell her his thoughts on the matter – if only for her not to get disappointed later on.

"That's not the end, Lilly." Jackson said, trying his best not to sound worried. "I don't think Dad's speech shook her off for good. In fact, I don't have any idea of what may shake her off for good."

And that was the worst part of it. Because, now that Sarah had found out he and Lilly were dating, and until he managed to shake her off for good, his life was going to be hell.

* * *

And hell it was. For the next days at school, Lilly and Sarah spent every possible moment arguing about which one of them really loved Jackson, and which one of them had to get away for Jackson to be happy with the remaining one. And the worst part of it was that Jackson's attempts at trying to break the arguments appeared to fall on deaf ears, as they acted like they didn't listen to him. In fact, they didn't even seem to realize he was there.

And Rico, of course, was having the time of his life, giving his devilish smirks whenever he saw Jackson's torment at the fact he was being constantly hounded by Sarah and having to stop fights between her and Lilly. Unfortunately, most of those attempts ended with him getting a few punches from Sarah. The only good part of the whole deal was that Lilly had never punched him. In fact, she even seemed to listen to him whenever he tried to stop an argument between her and Sarah. She only didn't seem capable of resisting to Sarah's provocations, which were growing far worse by the day.

At the rate things were going, Jackson hated to imagine what the future would bring.

Of course, there were people who tried to make him look at the matter on a different perspective.

"You should look on the bright side of the matter." Cooper said to Jackson at school, three days after Sarah had burst into Jackson's house.

"What bright side?" Jackson shouted. "There's no bright side to that."

"Hello!" Cooper shouted as if he thought Jackson was behaving like a total idiot. "You've got girls fighting over you. Generally, when they do that, it's because they think you're a good catch. No guy of our class was ever fought over. You should feel proud."

"I don't want to be fought over, damn it!" Jackson shouted. "I want Stupid Saint Sarah to leave me alone so that Lilly and I can date in peace!"

"Wow!" Cooper said, raising his hands in an appeasing gesture. "Calm down there, man. Who'd listen to you would think you're in love with Lilly."

"What if I was?" Jackson asked, looking straight in Cooper's eyes – well, as straight as he could, considering Cooper was by now taller than him.

"Honestly?" Cooper asked, clearly surprised at Jackson's question.

Jackson gave a single, fierce nod.

"I'd think it was a little bit weird." Cooper stated. "You're not even eighteen; I think you're a bit young to be in love. But it's your business. You decide."

Jackson sighed in relief. At least, Cooper wasn't trying to come up with any stupid comments or anything in that vein.

But that didn't really help solving his problem. In fact, nothing seemed to help with solving this problem. Jackson only hoped that he'd find a solution before this caused some sort of irreversible tragedy.

* * *

Several hours later, Jackson staggered back into his house, after spending the whole day trying unsuccessfully to stop Lilly and Sarah from arguing. Today was a day when he had classes until later than both of them, so that meant he had to stay at school for an extra hour, all the while letting Lilly and Sarah out of his view. He wasn't all that worried about what could happen to Sarah, but he was really worried about Lilly. Even if Sarah was described as 'saint' by her classmates, lately she had looked more like a devil. And there were times when she could really fight like a devil. Jackson remembered when he'd seen Oliver after he had been attacked by 'Sarahtopia'. Hopefully, Miley, Oliver and Joannie had managed to stop those two from getting into fights.

Trying to put the thoughts of Lilly being beaten by Sarah out of his head, Jackson walked into his house – only to find both Lilly and Sarah were there.

"Aaaah!" he shouted.

He started turning tail to run away, but, right before running away, he noticed something weird. Both Lilly and Sarah were staying put and quiet, instead of arguing or looking like they were about to fight. In fact, they appeared almost… subdued. But why would that be?

"Hey there, son. It's nice to see that ya got here." his father said from the kitchen.

Jackson hadn't noticed him before, but that explained the reason why Sarah and Lilly were quiet: because his father had intimidated them into being quiet. For a moment, Jackson noticed there was a whistle hanging from his father's neck, but why his dad was wearing a whistle wasn't the main thing Jackson wanted to know.

"Why do you say that, Dad?" he asked. For him, there was nothing nice about being in the same room than both Sarah and Lilly. If it was only Lilly, it would be wonderful, but Sarah and Lilly, or even Sarah only… the whole purpose was ruined.

"Because, after spending a lot of time thinking about your issue with Sarah and Lilly, and how both of them claim they love you, I found a way to solve that issue."

"But there's nothing to solve, Dad!" Jackson said. "It's Lilly I love!"

"I'm talking about solving the issue of which one of them truly loves you." his father explained. "There's nothing to decide about which one of them you love."

"What's your idea?" Jackson asked. He was still wary of the idea, but if this was going to get Sarah off, he was determined to accept it.

"You'll soon find out." his father said. "Follow me."

With that, his father turned to the door by the piano and walked out. Lilly and Sarah got up and followed him. Finding himself increasingly nervous by the moment, Jackson reluctantly went after them, wondering just what his father's idea was.

* * *

"Where on the hell did you get this idea?" Jackson asked his father, not making any effort to repress the outrage bursting through him.

In the end, his father had lead them to an isolated part of the beach, then he'd drawn a circle on the sand with a stick, and had told Jackson to stand in the middle. Then, he'd told both Lilly and Sarah to hold on to one of Jackson's arms. Sarah was holding his right arm, and Lilly his left. It didn't take being a genius to realize that the idea was that the one who managed to pull Jackson out of the circle won.

"That's a long story." his father said. "But basically, in our family, whenever a man was fought over by two women, this was the method used to decide which one of them loved him the most. That's how your Aunt Louise was worthy of winning your Uncle Bobby over that time when there was another woman who wanted him. And it's also how Aunt Pearl was worthy of winning Uncle Earl over – back in those days when he was as hot as I and my unibrow."

Jackson could see Lilly grimacing, and he understood why. Imagining her father with his unibrow didn't really sound appealing. Thankfully, she'd never seen a picture of her dad and his 'sexy unibrow'.

"You can stop telling the story, Mr. Stewart." Sarah said. "I'm ready to start."

Jackson felt Sarah gripping the arm that she was holding with more strength. Lilly, however, appeared less certain about this.

"But Mr. Stewart – won't Jackson get hurt?" she whispered, nervousness evident in her tone.

"Don't mind about that." Jackson said. "Just focus on pulling me out of this madgirl's grasp."

"I don't want to hurt you." Lilly whispered.

"I can handle a little pain." Jackson said. "If it means getting this girl to quit, I'm ready for anything."

Lilly nodded, but her fear was still obvious in her face. Truth to be told, Jackson was quite scared himself, but he was going to take anything if it meant Sarah would get lost.

"Very well then…" his father said. "Ready, set…"

"Don't start without us!" a voice shouted.

Jackson groaned. He had recognized that voice far too well.

Even so, he couldn't repress himself from looking on the voice's direction. Like he expected, he saw Rico – but what even he didn't expect was to see Rico leading a group of about fifty people toward them.

"Sweet niblets!" Jackson cursed.

"Rico?" his father asked. "What are you doing here?"

"Simple." replied Rico. "I saw you four walking off, and I thought you four were going to settle the issue. I smelled the chance to make money, so I spread through the beach the news that there was going to be a fight, and I got each of these to pay ten bucks in exchange for telling where the fight was going to be!"

His father sent Rico the same intimidating glare he always managed to muster when he wanted. Rico stepped back, clearly realizing he had made a mistake. The rest of the crowd also seemed quite uneasy after his father's glare. Hopefully, that would be enough to make them all go away.

But, intimidated as they were, they stayed – and his father didn't really seem up to chasing them all off.

"Very well then." his father finally said. "I didn't count on having an audience, but that doesn't really change anything. In fact, having an audience may even help getting the point across better."

Even in his nervousness at the idea of the pain that was about to come, Jackson couldn't help but to wonder what that meant exactly.

"Again, when I give the sign, you can start pulling."

Sarah nodded, tightening her grip on his wrist. Lilly still looked nervous, but she did her best to grasp Jackson's wrist in her hands.

"Ready… set… go!" his father said.

That was all it took for both Lilly and Sarah to start pulling – and for Jackson's pain to begin.

* * *

Immediately from the first moment the pulling started, Lilly could see that Jackson was being hurt – and a whole lot. He was pressing his lips together, clearly attempting not to scream, but Lilly could read his face like a book. The look on his face was enough to make her feel like if she was the one being pulled into two halves. Worse, it was also stopping her from using most of her strength. Although Lilly wanted to win, she wanted to do so without hurting Jackson. However, from the look of barely repressed pain she could see on his face, that was turning out to be impossible.

Sarah, however, didn't seem to be noticing it. She only seemed focused in pulling him out of Lilly's grasp. Lilly tried to pull more toward her side, but at that moment, Jackson pressed his lips more tightly, and Lilly actually had to close her eyes for not to let him go. If this continued for much longer, she was going to end up letting him go for real, only for not to hurt him any more.

She tried to pull Jackson more toward her, but Sarah countered by pulling him even harder toward the other side.

"Aaaagggh!" Jackson screamed.

His shout from pain immediately resulted in taunts from the audience for being such a chicken. Apparently, none of them had any idea of what was being pulled into two sides. But Jackson didn't seem to be paying any mind. Neither did Lilly.

The only thing she pained any mind was to Jackson's scream, which made her feel as though she'd been stabbed. She tried to grab Jackson more tightly, but she knew that, if Jackson shouted again, she was going to let him go. She had already hurt him too much.

Lilly gave one last pull toward her side, hoping this one would actually get Jackson out of Sarah's grasp. It almost worked, but Sarah managed to hold him at the last moment. Then, she gave an even harder tug toward her side.

"AAAAAGGGH!" Jackson repeated, even louder than before.

This time, it was too much. When Sarah pulled again, Lilly let him go. She couldn't bear the thought of hurting him any more.

Shouting in surprise, Sarah ended up pulling him out of the circle, and the two fell into the sand.

For a moment, the whole audience just stood silent, paralyzed at what had just happened. The same look of disbelief was on everyone's face there.

Then, as if in slow motion, the people in the crowd started arguing among themselves, apparently due to several bets that had been made while Lilly and Sarah had each been trying to pull Jackson toward their respective sides.

But Lilly paid them no mind. She could only think about how Jackson had to be feeling toward her. She couldn't see his face, as it was still turned to the sand, but it was better that way. Probably, she wouldn't handle Jackson's look of disappointment at the moment. He had trusted her to get him out of Sarah's grasp, and she had deliberately let him go. He was bound to take that as meaning she didn't love him, and wanted Sarah to keep him. But that was a lie. She wanted to keep being his girlfriend. The only issue was that she was ready to let him go, if the alternative meant hurting him. But how could she make Jackson understand that? And if she managed to do that, what could she do when there were about fifty witnesses to the fact she had let him go?

The sound of a whistle being blown brought her out of her thoughts. Looking up in surprise, Lilly saw that Mr. Stewart had been the one who whistled. She'd seen him with the whistle around his neck ever since she'd arrived at Mr. Stewart's house, but she hadn't guessed what it was for.

"Very well then." he said. "After what we saw here, I guess it's more than clear who really loves Jackson."

Lilly lowered her eyes. She wasn't going to start pleading her case. Even if she had let him go, she had lost. There was no other truth to the matter.

She briefly noticed that Sarah seemed about to explode from joy at the prospect of being proclaimed 'Jackson's keeper'. Jackson seemed heartbroken – he'd clearly counted on Lilly to get him out of that girl's grasp.

Lilly grimaced, not wanting to hear what was about to come from Mr. Stewart's mouth.

"Lilly is the one!" Mr. Stewart proclaimed.

"What?" Rico asked from the first row of the crowd.

"What?" Sarah asked, absolutely stupefied.

"What?" Jackson asked, looking more surprised than anyone else.

Lilly looked up, surprise bursting through her. She had won? But what sort of logic did that have? She had let Jackson go! How could she have won?

"That's impossible!" Rico argued. "She let him go! We all saw that, didn't we?"

Every person in the crowd nodded in excitement, followed by Sarah. Lilly lowered her head again. As painful as it was to admit, they had a point. Lilly had let him go.

"That's just the point." Mr. Stewart replied. "If you love someone, you'll let them go rather than hurt them. That's exactly what Lilly did. She let him go because she didn't want to hurt him, unlike Sarah, who was so focused on getting Jackson for herself that she didn't stop to think about how Jackson was feeling."

Turning to Sarah, Mr. Stewart added, in what Lilly figured to be the most sympathetic voice he could muster, "I'm sorry to say this Sarah, but that's the truth. And deep down, I'm sure even you know that."

Looking like she was about to burst in tears, Sarah turned around and ran off. Apparently, being proclaimed unworthy of Jackson in front of more than fifty people had been too much for her. For a moment, Lilly felt just a little bit sorry for Sarah – but Mr. Stewart was right. Sarah had simply been obsessed with Jackson. That much, even Lilly could tell.

Meanwhile, the crowd started dispersing. Mr. Stewart looked like he was going to follow, but before doing so, he stopped and patted her shoulder. To Lilly, it felt like he'd just yet again given her his approval.

Then, he walked off.

Lilly took that as her cue to run over to Jackson, who had just managed to get up.

"Are you alright?" she asked, gently rubbing the tips of her fingers over his wrists, elbows, and fingers.

"I don't think I broke or dislocated anything, if that's what you mean." he said. "I think it will pass with another of your massages." he added with a smile, showing there were no hard feelings.

Lilly gave her boyfriend the brightest smile she could muster. "With pleasure."

Then, a sudden thought coming into her mind, she added, "By the way, I know this may sound stupid, but do you have any idea of how Sarah found out we were dating? I mean, she's not of the gossiping type, and we've been together for three months. Someone must have told her – as in, deliberately told her."

"You're right." Jackson said. "But who?"

As soon as Jackson made the question, the answer came to both of them. Both looked on the direction of the crowd. By now, it had mostly dispersed, but Rico was standing there – and as soon as Lilly and Jackson turned to him, he looked like a deer caught in headlights.

"Rico…" both Lilly and Jackson said.

"Yikes!" Rico squeaked, a terrified look on his face.

* * *

Less than half an hour later, Rico was buried 'till his neck in the Malibu sand, Lilly and Jackson towering over him.

"So, you did all of that just because you wanted to have fun at making me miserable?" Jackson asked. "Very well, how fun it is to be on the receiving end?"

"Stop that, Jackson!" Rico shouted. "I told you, I'm rich and spoiled, this is what I do for fun! I'm sorry, but I just can't help it! Now get me out of here!"

"I don't think so." Jackson said. "I'm going home to get Lilly's massage first. About an hour from now, I'll come here to dig you out."

Then, turning back to Lilly, he said, "Shall we go?"

"Of course." she said with a smile.

Those were the last words any of them said before running off to Jackson's house, leaving Rico buried 'till his neck to think about what he'd done for the next hour. Hopefully, that would teach him to get other ways of entertainment other than to ruin people's lives.

* * *

**So, this is it. I hope you all enjoyed it. I'm sorry if this sounds too stupid... but well, it was the only way I remembered to actually make Sarah realize that she doesn't love Jackson. The principle I based myself on was the same King Solomon applied in the Bible when there were two women claiming to be the mother of a baby, and King Solomon ended up saying to cut the baby in half, and the real mother said she would rather let the other woman keep the baby than hurt him. I know it's not exactly the same thing with two women and a boyfriend... but well, the basic principle is the same. And besides, this is inspired in a comic show, so I think the concept works well enough.**

**I'm sorry if Sarah seems out of character... but I did it for the plot. And she did prove to be pretty aggressive with all of Jackson's girlfriends, so I guess the stretch isn't all that big. I hope you all enjoyed... and I hope you review.**


	4. Chapter 4: Of movies and friends

**Well, here it is another chapter for you, readers. Hopefully, you will enjoy it, but if you don't, I understand, because I recognize this isn't exactly my best job. Speaking of it, I've got important news for you - but I'm going to wait until the end, because if I tell them now you'll surely skip the author's note to get to the chapter.**

**So... I hope you enjoy the chapter, but please take care to read my author's note at the end.**

**

* * *

**

**Chapter 4 – Of movies and friends**

Miley Stewart sat on a chair with caster wheels, inside the office of cast director Howard Goldwasser, holding a script in her hands as she auditioned for a role in a movie. Or, to be more specific Hannah Montana sat in Howard Goldwasser's office, auditioning for the main role of _Indiana Joannie, _an upcoming movie that would be directed by Rob Reiner, one of Hollywood's best movie directors. If she managed to get the role, Hannah Montana would go from a famous singer only to a famous singer and actress both.

But before she could even think about getting the role, she had to audition for it. And unfortunately, that was turning out to be much harder than she had expected, because of one thing.

Howard delivered the lines with less passion than a catatonic bull, and without having something to work with, it was almost impossible for Hannah to keep in character. She was doing her biggest efforts, but at the rate things were going, even that wouldn't do her any good.

"I thought I meant something to you, Eddie." she said, trying to speak in the heartbroken tone Indiana Joannie, the character she was auditioning for, had. "But if you give up now you're not just giving up on yourself. You're giving up on us."

"You think I don't know that?" Howard said, his voice more devoid of emotion than an empty bag. "You think this isn't tearing me apart inside?"

Then, he gave some sort of low moan. According to the script, that was meant to be Eddie suffering, but to Hannah, it sounded like the poorest imitation of a goat's bleating she had ever heard.

"Well then hang on, Eddie." Hannah carried on, speaking in the begging tone the script indicated. "Hang on to the life that we can have together."

She could feel the passion she delivered to her own lines slipping away, but considering the partner she had gotten, it was a miracle such a thing hadn't happened sooner.

"But the water's so cold, Joannie." Howard followed the script, but his voice was no more emotional than before. "I can't feel my legs."

He made a sound that was meant to be Eddie's teeth chattering, but it simply looked like a poor imitation of a chainsaw's engine. At least, Howard wasn't recycling material.

But recycling material or not, it was just impossible for her to continue the audition with that partner.

"I'm sorry." she said, letting the script fall on her lap. "I just need a second to get back in the character. You know, so that I can give back, everything you're giving me." she concluded, trying her best not to let her sarcasm show.

_Which is nothing._ Hannah added both in her mind and in the tone in which she spoke. But she couldn't risk upsetting the cast director. Even the most catatonic people could have a button that turned them wild, and if that happened, Howard could say a few non-helping words to Rob Reiner.

Fortunately, Howard didn't realize anything.

"I did sense you were holding back." Howard said, getting up and going back to behind his desk.

"That's why you're the best cast director in town!" Hannah fake-chirped, as she pushed the chair toward the couch where her father and Lola were sitting.

If this one was the best, she didn't even want to think how the others were.

"He's killing me." she whispered to her father.

"Just calm down, honey." her father whispered.

"Calm down?" Hannah repeated, unable to believe her ears. "How am I supposed to convince Rob Reiner, one of the top directors in Hollywood, that I'm right for the part if I'm auditioning with a cross between Shea Le-Boring and Tom Snooze?"

She didn't know, but she sure wanted to find out soon.

Lola giggled at her puns, and added, "Or Leonardo DiComatose and Snorlando Bloom?"

She gave a short laugh at the end, clearly hoping that Hannah and her father would also laugh. Obviously, she was trying to bring humor into the situation. It was a pity that her attempt had failed slightly.

"I laughed at yours." Lola said in an offended tone. Clearly, she was at least a bit hurt for Hannah not having laughed.

Hannah gave Lola a sympathetic look. She knew she could have at least tried to make an effort, but currently she wasn't managing to see fun in anything. And she probably wouldn't until her audition was over.

"I got an idea, darlin'." her father said.

Hannah's interest perked up.

"Excuse me, Howard." her father said as she pushed her chair back to the place where it was before. "Would it be alright if I read the lines with Hannah one time? You know, just might make her, more comfortable."

"But can you deliver the lines with the same passion I do?" Howard asked.

"That's a risk I'm willing to take." Hannah said without hesitation, hoping with all her heart that he wouldn't read the lines with the same passion Howard did.

"Okay then." Howard said. "Action."

Her father sat in the chair Howard had occupied, and gave a nervous glance at the camera aiming at them, before he made himself comfortable.

"Then hang on, Eddie." Hannah repeated the last set of lines she'd read. "Hang on to the life that we can have together."

Her father gave another nervous glance at the camera, before reading Eddie's next line.

"But the water is so cold, Joannie. I can't feel my legs. Shivers."

Hannah rolled her eyes. Great. Just great. Her father had more passion than Howard, but if he didn't even know how to distinguish stage directions from dialogue, he was an even worse choice.

"I'm sorry, who's Shivers?" Her father asked.

Hannah slammed the script against her face.

"Is that my cutesy name for you, or something, 'cause… it feels like such a weird time to be sayin' it, knowing my legs would be…"

"Hey daddy." Hannah tried to help him. "You're supposed to shiver there."

"Oh, OK." Her father said, looking like he'd finally gotten the hint. "Give me one more time, please."

"And action." Howard repeated.

"Then hang on, Eddie." Hannah repeated. "Hang on to the life that we can have together."

"Oh… but the water's so cold, Joannie." This time, her father said the lines with more feeling. "I can't feel my legs. Shiiiiiveeeer…"

Hannah did her best not to grumble. Her father had even more emotion behind his words now, but if he couldn't follow a stage direction or know what such a thing was, Hannah wasn't going to take him either.

"Lola, maybe you should read it with me." Hannah said as she snatched the other script from her father's hands and threw it to Lola.

"Eeep!" Lola let out in surprise as she barely managed to catch the script, a nervous look on her face.

"It's the shivers, wasn't it?" her father asked. "This stupid red light made me nervous!" he cursed as he switched seats with Lola.

"Are-are you sure you want…" Lola started to say.

"Lola, just read the line, and for the love of Pete give me something to work with!" Hannah said, starting to grow sick of the whole situation.

"Okay." Howard said. "Let's make some magic."

Hannah and Lola gave him a peculiar look. Where had that one come from?

"Then hang on, Eddie." Hannah said yet again, when she managed to get back into character. "Hang on to the life that we can have together."

"But the water. Is so cold. J-j-j-j-j-joannie!" Lola shouted in an overly-dramatic voice, clenching her fist. "I can't. Feel. My legs." she said as she slapped her legs repeatedly, before throwing herself onto the floor, doing what looked like a poor attempt at imitating the death throes of a rattlesnake.

Hannah gave one look around, almost hoping to see any person inside the office that hadn't read the lines with her yet, but her hope wasn't granted. Either way, the only two people who could also be here were Jackson and Oliver (or rather, Bucky and Mike), but none of them had been able to come, because both their 'real-egos' were busy. Jackson was at work at Rico's, and Oliver apparently was rehearsing with a band he had formed so he could audition to play at the school dance. It was a pity, because Jackson had real acting talent. And although Oliver still got somewhat nervous in front of large crowds, he acted much better now than he had when they had played Romeo and Juliet, back when they were fourteen. But they weren't here, so she couldn't think about asking them.

As far as she knew, she could only do one thing. One thing she hated, but that was still her less bad choice.

Hannah got up, stepped over Lola, and walked to the front of Howard's desk.

"How about you and me from the top one more time, what do you say?" she asked.

The man could have less passion than a catatonic bull, but he was still the best – or 'the least worst' – out of all the candidates in this office.

Howard gave her the thumbs up. But that only meant one thing: that Hannah would need to summon enough passion to convince Rob Reiner all on her own. Oh well, perhaps it was better that way. When Rob Reiner saw the tape of her getting into character in spite of Howard not giving her anything to work with, he'd realize she was the right one for the Indiana Joannie role.

* * *

Next day, after spending the last day looking at her phone, throwing herself over a table to answer it when she thought Howard was calling, and shoving the phone against Jackson's face after he'd covered it with whipped cream, Miley was walking through the school's corridor after classes, trying her best to find a place where the signal for the Hannah phone was good. It had been almost a day since her audition, and so far, she had barely managed to look her phone, due to her eagerness to receive Howard's answer about whether she had gotten the Indiana Joannie role or not.

A tiny, reasonable part of her knew that looking at the phone on a permanent basis wouldn't make it ring faster, but Miley couldn't help it. She was just too nervous and anxious about receiving the call to stop thinking about it.

Unfortunately, her behavior caused two problems. One was that she was a complete nervous wreck in her search for a place where the Hannah phone had a good signal. The other was that she was starting to bother other people in her obsession for the call.

"Will you put that away, for God's sake?" Jackson said at her. "We came here to support Oliver at his audition, not to see you stress out about that damn phone's signal."

Miley growled, as she again experienced one of the downsides of her brother dating Lilly that she hadn't gotten used to yet: the fact he'd started hanging out with them at school a lot more. And what was worse, he was as much of an annoyance as always during that time.

"Jackson's right." Lilly added. "Oliver may be just auditioning to play at the school dance, but it means as much to him as the movie does to you."

"You're right." Miley said as she kept waving her phone in the air, although in a more absent minded manner. "I'm totally here for…" then, at long last, the Hannah phone got a signal. "Four bars!" she shouted, as she gave her full attention back to the phone.

Both Lilly and Jackson gave her a look that left very clear what they thought of her behavior.

"What?" Miley asked. "Can't support him from behind this trash can?"

That seemed to be the last drop. Instead of answering her verbally, both Lilly and Jackson grabbed one of her arms and dragged her into the room where the audition was taking place, pulling her away from the cell phone's signal. Miley tried her best to struggle, but even her biggest efforts proved useless.

From the looks of things, it was better to hope that the call had, having already taken so long to come, would just take some more time.

* * *

It was so hard to get Miley into the room, that when they finally managed to do so, Lilly was about to sigh in relief, even as she knew that all of a sudden Miley could just dash out of the room to go back to the place where the cell phone's signal was good. Fortunately, when they got into the room, she appeared to have forgotten about it. With that task over, Lilly searched around for Oliver. She spotted him on a low stage, talking to his band. He looked somewhat weird in the outfit he was wearing: a tie and a vest mixed with a t-shirt, skinny jeans, and sneakers. But Lilly refrained herself from making comments. After all, she wasn't the best person to criticize that, because she also wasn't one to dress nice all that often.

"Hi Oliver." she greeted.

"Howdy, man." echoed Jackson.

"What's up guys?" he said as he walked up to them. "You know, thank you so much for being here. I can't believe how nervous I am."

"Oh don't worry, you're gonna do great." Lilly said.

"Sure, man." Jackson added. "Just think positive, and calm down a little bit."

"Yeah." Miley said. "And you know what, here's a… here's an idea. How about…"

"And here's another idea." Jackson broke in, grabbing Miley's upper arm. "How about you stay right where you are, and support him?"

"Couldn't have said it better myself." Lilly said.

Mr. Meadows, the judge, gave them a peculiar look from the chair where he sat, before he turned to Oliver.

"Oken? Are you ready?" he asked.

"Yes sir." he said.

"Go get' em!" Lilly encouraged.

"Good luck!" Jackson wished.

"You're gonna do great!" Miley said.

But as soon as Oliver walked away, she turned her gaze back to the cell phone.

"Two bars." she muttered. "One bar."

She tried to move behind Lilly, but apparently, the signal got even worse, because she muttered, "Oh mud crunkies."

Meanwhile, Oliver positioned himself at the microphone, as the band started playing a tune she recognized as being of one of Mitchel Musso's songs, although she couldn't remember the particular song's name.

_I need a kick-drum_

_A guitar now_

_And a bass line_

_And I'm gonna show you how. _

_How to rock, how to dance, how to get down_

_All I need is a piano in my track now!_

_Throw your hands, throw your hands, throw your hands up! _

_Whoa! Whoa!_

'_Cause you can't, 'cause you can't, 'cause you cant stop!_

_Whoa! Whoa!_

"Wow, he's better than I expected." Jackson said, an impressed look on his face.

"He sure is." Lilly agreed, awed. While Oliver's voice was far from the level of a superstar, it was a lot better than it had been back at that karaoke show on their freshman fundraiser. Considering that hadn't been so long ago, his voice had improved a lot very quickly.

"Yeah, right." Miley said, as she turned to walk away from them.

Meanwhile, Mr. Meadows started shaking to the tune.

"Mr. Meadows is enjoying it too." Lilly said, looking around to speak to Miley – only to realize she was missing.

"Where did Miley go?" she asked Jackson.

"Beats me." Jackson replied, as the two of them started looking around for her.

Finding her wasn't hard, but it still took longer than it would be ideal, because when they finally spotted her, she was already up on the stage, aiming her cell phone towards the ceiling.

After a brief nod at each other, Lilly and Jackson gave a turn around the stage – taking care to go behind it – and walked up on it as well. Miley looked behind her when she saw them arriving, and only then she realized where she was. She still didn't seem very concerned, however, because she lifted her finger to signal them to wait for a moment. But neither Lilly nor Jackson did as she asked. If they stood around for too long, Mr. Meadows would get suspicious, and that could ruin Oliver's audition.

But Lilly and Jackson put their hands up, like the lyrics of the song were saying, and started sliding to the side, trying to pass it off as part of the performance. After only a moment, Miley followed their lead. And although she stopped midway, apparently because the phone had suddenly gotten a signal good enough for her, she didn't throw any tantrum when Lilly and Jackson almost pushed her off the stage. Hopefully, Mr. Meadows had either taken that as part of the show, or had been too caught in Oliver's music to really notice.

However, the biggest problem of it still was that they had to put up with a sulky Miley for the rest of the audition. But, fortunately, she didn't do anything else that could mean trouble. Hopefully Oliver would get the gig, just like Miley would get her role.

* * *

Less than twenty-four hours later, Lilly was almost wishing that the audition hadn't gone so well. Or, to be honest, she was almost wishing the audition hadn't taken place _at all_. Because now, instead of having to put up with one friend permanently glued to the phone, she had to put up with two friends, who only had eyes for their own cell phones, and were repeating 'Come on, come on, come on' over and over again like a litany. At this rate, they would go at it for the whole weekend, stopping only to eat and sleep – if they even did it. And what was worst, Jackson wasn't with her to help her get through this. But that wasn't his fault – after all, he had work to do. While Lilly knew she could go at Rico's to meet, there were two reasons for not to. For one, she wanted to be close by when both Miley and Oliver answered those phone calls – although more out of curiosity than anything else. And for other, she still wanted to try and get her friends out of Miley's house, where they currently were. Spending the weekend with their eyes glued to the phone wouldn't do any good to either of them.

"Come on, come on, come on…" both her best friends were still muttering, after at least three hours.

"Come on, come on, come on!" Lilly ended up shouting, the limit to her patience reached. Both of them got quiet after her outburst, but they didn't look away from their phones for more than an instant.

In an effort to let out her annoyance, she got up from the couch and walked behind the couch were Miley and Oliver were still sitting, standing between them. "Are we gonna spend the entire weekend waiting to see…" she looked at Miley "…if you got the part…" she looked at Oliver "…or you got the gig?"

None of them reacted. Apparently, both were more on the other side than on this one. Things were going too far.

"Wake up. Move. Do something!" Lilly shouted, hoping to keep them more on this world than on the other.

This time, they reacted more to her shouts, but the only thing they did was switch places on the couch.

"There." Oliver said.

"Happy?" Miley asked.

_Not really_. Lilly thought.

But she only said, with barely contained anger, "It is times like this I thank my lucky stars I have no talent."

That wasn't true. She had talent, but it was mostly for skateboarding, surfing, cheerleading, and other sports of the kind. It wasn't the kind of thing that could get her famous, but ever since she could disguise herself as Lola Luftnagle and get to meet celebrities, she hadn't been really interested in gaining fame. Having a famous best friend was enough, even if you felt dwarfed by her at times.

"I didn't get the part. That's why Howard hasn't called me. He doesn't have the guts." Miley suddenly said, looking at Oliver.

At least, she had stopped looking at the phone.

Then, as if a thought had struck her, she added, "Or he's having problems with his guts and he's in the bathroom. Poor Howard."

And just like that, she was back to looking at her phone, trying to will it to ring with her mere gaze.

"Call!" she shouted.

Then it was Oliver's turn.

"You know, I sang great." Oliver said. "Mr. Meadows is just jealous. He's jealous that he don't have my talent. I mean, you know what they say 'Those who can't sing, teach.'."

"Hey, maybe I should be a teacher." Lilly said, a smile lighting up her face at the thought.

Obviously, she didn't believe she could be a teacher without knowing the subject she would teach, but it sounded like a job she would enjoy. Helping to form young minds, transmit knowledge – it sounded a pretty good idea overall. Most people seemed to expect her to try a career at professional sports, but recently, sports were becoming more a mean to keep fit and a fun hobby than anything else. The competitiveness of professional sports was a little too much for her.

Suddenly, both Miley's and Oliver's cell phones started ringing.

"Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy, oh boy."

"Answer the phone!" Lilly shouted.

Much to her surprise, both Miley and Oliver got up, pressed the button on their phones, and walked away on separate directions without the slightest sign of protest.

"Hey, I'd be a good teacher." she said, amazed at the way how Miley and Oliver followed her indications. "Supportive, fun – but no talking back. That is unacceptable. Unacceptable, I say."

Well, perhaps she would need to get some of her quick temper under control in order to truly be a good teacher – but either way, it still seemed a career to be considered. But not now. Now it was time to see if Miley and Oliver had gotten what they had been waiting so anxiously for.

Lilly turned to Miley first. Things didn't really sound good with her. She was talking in an even, controlled voice, obviously trying to hold back some emotion. But if it was some good emotion, she most likely wouldn't be trying to hold it back.

"Yeah. I totally understand." she said. "Thanks for the call."

Not good. Apparently, Indiana Joannie would be played by someone else.

"Ohh…" she said, in what she tried to make a supportive tone.

Miley turned the call off, and then turned to Lilly – with the hugest smile ever on her lips.

"I got a callback. I'm meeting Rob Reiner!" she said, the smile on place all the way through her sentence.

Lilly smiled as well, not even wondering about why Miley had taken the care to speak in that controlled tone.

But the celebration wasn't done. Miley grabbed Lilly's elbows, ready to start her happy dance. Answering in kind, Lilly grabbed Miley's elbows as well, and the two started jumping up and down, shouting, "Yay, yay, yay, yay, yay, yay, yay!"

After only a short moment, Oliver came up behind them, his phone still pressed to his ear. The two girls stopped their happy dance, wanting to listen to what he would say.

"Yes sir. I totally understand. Thanks for the call." he said, as he turned off the phone.

"Whoa!" Miley and Lilly chorused, taking that as their cue to add a third participant to their happy dance.

The two girls jumped over to him, 'yaying' all the way there, and surrounded him, still jumping afterwards. However, he barely seemed to notice their presence.

"Why aren't you jumping?" Miley asked.

"Why aren't you yaying?" Lilly added.

"Why aren't you jumping and yaying?" Miley said, clearly feeling another sentence was needed.

Alright, even Lilly saw that had been a wrong question. If Oliver wasn't in the mood to do even one of those things, he most likely wouldn't do both of them.

"I didn't get it." he said.

Both Lilly and Miley stopped jumping as though their off button had been pressed.

"I'm sorry." Miley said as Oliver turned away and sat on the couch.

"There'll be other dances." Lilly added, trying to be supportive, although she knew it wouldn't really cheer him up.

Right now, he was probably feeling the same way she felt whenever she lost one of her skateboarding championships, back when she still participated on them. Knowing there would be another one where she could try to win never really cheered her up when she lost.

"I know." he said. "It's just that, I wanted this so bad and I really thought I had it."

"I know you feel." Miley said in a sympathetic tone, putting her arm over Oliver's shoulders.

Apparently, that had been a wrong move.

"No you don't, Miley." Oliver got up from the couch, and asked, "I mean, seriously, when was the last time Hannah Montana wanted something that she didn't get?"

Good point. Even if Miley didn't always get what she wanted, Hannah Montana got about everything she wanted these days. Lilly knew she didn't do it 'willingly' and didn't cheat, but she had also come to learn that sometimes, fame could be a burden to other people, and not only to its target.

"Oh well there was that one time that…" she tried to start, but then she said, "…oh no I got that."

Even without knowing exactly what Miley was talking about, Lilly knew she wasn't saying the right things.

But she tried another example, "Oh, oh, I remember this one time… no, I broke the house record there."

Miley still wasn't saying the right things. But she decided to go for a third try, probably in hopes that her third would be successful.

"Oh, I was so devastated when… that turned out great."

Enough was enough. It was better if Lilly stopped Miley before she said too much. She poked Miley's shoulder to get her attention. Getting the hint, Miley leaned down to listen.

"You're not really helping." Lilly said.

"Yeah Miley." Oliver said. "I mean let's face it. You get everything you go after." he said, as he started to walk away.

Oliver was right. Perhaps that was a little bit of an overstatement, but Miley was definitely closer from getting everything she wanted than Oliver.

"Hold on." Miley said. "When… when did this become about me?"

"I don't know." Oliver said. "It's just, I mean… you know, being around all your success kinda makes me feel…"

"Like a failure?" Lilly broke in, trying to guess the end to Oliver's sentence.

"I was gonna say bad." he said. But he mouthed a 'yes' afterwards.

Lilly looked away. Oliver's sad and at the same time somewhat reproachful look wasn't the best sight in this house.

"I'm sorry, Oliver." Miley said. "I-I would never do that on purpose."

That was a little bit of a lie. Miley got her success because she did it on purpose – although Lilly knew perfectly that Miley would never have the intention to hurt Oliver or anyone else along the way.

"I know." Oliver said. "I'm not saying it's your fault. I'm just saying… Miley, it used to be a lot easier hanging out with you when I didn't know your secret."

Perhaps it was time to change subjects before things got out of hand – if they weren't so already.

Lilly stood up, and asked, "Did I mention I want to be a teacher?"

None of them heard her.

"Oliver, you're acting like you don't even wanna be my friend anymore. It's crazy."

Lilly was forced to agree with Miley. It was a little bit crazy. But she also knew Oliver was quite upset at the moment, and could not see things as they were for some time.

"I don't know." he said. "I gotta go."

With that, he turned away and walked out of the door.

"Can you believe him?" Miley asked Lilly. "He's acting like I get everything I want."

With that, she walked to a stuffed chair and sat there.

Apparently, that wasn't true. Even if Hannah Montana could get everything she wanted, right now Miley wasn't getting one thing she wanted. Unfortunately, Mr. Stewart chose that time to enter with a large framed image of Hannah Montana with statistics written on the side.

"Wee doggies!" he said. "Mile, your album just went double platinum! Yay yay yay yay…"

Mr. Stewart kept jumping for quite a while, but Lilly noticed Miley was barely aware of him. She only seemed to be thinking about Oliver, and the idea of losing his friendship. Hopefully, that wouldn't happen.

It wouldn't. Because Lilly was going to prevent it, even if she had to resort to drastic measures.

* * *

The day after, Lilly was on her way to Rico's shack. She'd spent all of Saturday resorting to all the sorts of measures for Oliver to talk to Miley. She'd tried everything, from peacefully persuading Oliver into talking to Miley to pouring an icy drink down Oliver's shirt. But even that hadn't made him talk to Miley. The only thing it had made him do was to go home and change clothes.

She'd tried many other things besides those, but none of them had worked. And by now, she was out of ideas to convince Oliver to not give up on his friendship with Miley. She even started to wonder whether it was impossible. After all, not even carrying out physical threats had done its job.

But she knew of someone who could have an idea. Jackson. He was Oliver's friend, and he was a guy. He could be able to see something that she had been missing. In addition to that, he was, for lack of a better expression, used to being dwarfed by Miley's success – although the fact didn't really seem to upset him – so perhaps he knew what to do to make Oliver feel better. And even if he said otherwise, Lilly knew he didn't want to see Miley upset. Not to mention that even if he didn't have any idea to make Oliver talk to Miley, he could help her relax, perhaps even give her his opinion about her becoming a teacher. And last, but not least, with being so caught up in convincing both her best friends to do something other than stare at the phone, and later with making Oliver talk to Miley, Lilly had scarcely seen Jackson for the whole weekend.

All in all, she had more than enough reasons to go to the shack, even if it meant the possibility of putting up with Rico's annoyed complaints.

She walked up to the counter – but much to her surprise, there was no one there.

"Jackson?" she called.

The only response she got was a fly buzzing around, before landing on a box with a few scraps of ketchup-covered curly fries.

"Jackson!"

This time, even the fly was quiet, probably because it was too caught in sucking ketchup to be thinking about buzzing.

"Just where did he go?" she asked, looking around to see if she could see him.

"Hello there." a high-pitched voice suddenly said from behind her.

Lilly jumped up in startle. That voice hadn't sounded like Jackson. Someone else was there.

Looking behind her, Lilly couldn't see anything. Who had spoken then? Had she imagined things?

"Down here, pretty lady!" the voice repeated.

Lilly turned her eyes downward, and saw a ventriloquist's dummy staring up at her. She let out a sigh of relief. At least, she hadn't imagined things.

"You're a very pretty lady." the dummy said. "Would you give me a kiss?"

Before Lilly could answer, the dummy went up somewhat, allowing Lilly to see that Jackson was the one controlling it.

"Sorry, Franklin." Jackson said to the dummy. "That's my girlfriend, she only kisses me. If you want a kiss from a pretty girl, go get another."

"You're selfish." Franklin said (or rather, Jackson said in his dummy voice). "Why can't you share her?"

"Some things just can't be shared, Franklin. Now please go away and give us some private time."

With that, Jackson bent down to put the dummy away.

"What's that for?" Lilly asked.

"I'm going to be the entertainer for Douggie Sorkin's birthday party this afternoon." he said. "Franklin's part of my act, and I'm gonna get three hundred bucks for it."

Then, he leaned over the counter, and the two shared a kiss. Usually, Jackson simply gave her a peck as a greeting, but now they had gone longer than usual without each other, so they shared a long, slow kiss. One that made Lilly feel like she was on the clouds – as it always happened during one of the long kisses she shared with him. She tried to make it last as long as possible, but eventually, they had to break apart, if only to get their breath back.

"Now, do you want to tell me what's upsetting you, or did you come here just to get an amazing kiss?" he asked when they both managed to even their breathing.

His tone and expression were joking, but he looked as though he was ready to turn serious in an instant if he had to.

"Well, the amazing kiss was surely part of it." Lilly said with a smile. "But I also came to ask you if you have an idea to solve a problem."

Like she expected, Jackson's look instantly turned serious.

"What's the problem?"

"Well, actually, the problem isn't really mine. It's more Miley's. And Oliver's, to some extent."

Jackson nodded, as though he knew what she was talking about.

"By that, I guess Oliver is still upset that Miley got the part as Indiana Joannie, when he didn't get the gig."

"That's a bit of an understatement." Lilly said. "Oliver got so upset at the fact Miley had got what she wanted when he hadn't that… that I'm starting to doubt whether he will ever want to be friends with her again. It's been a day, and he only talked to Miley once – and only to say that he couldn't talk to her."

Jackson's gaze hardened. Lilly knew that was because, in spite of what he could say, he cared about his sister, and he knew that losing her friendship with Oliver would hurt her.

"I'll talk to him." he said, looking ready to jump over the counter.

Lilly blocked his way. "Don't do that, Jackson. Not yet, at least."

"I've got to do something." he said, clearly not liking her view on things.

"Perhaps." Lilly agreed. "But I don't think you should just go to him in a rush. I tried that, it didn't work. We should come up with some sort of plan, or at least, think very carefully about what we could say."

Jackson gave her a slightly accusing look, as though he didn't believe she had a lot of moral to speak. Indeed, she hadn't. Although Lilly wasn't as hot-headed now as she had been before, thinking thoroughly about the consequences her actions could have before doing something still wasn't her strongest point.

"Maybe you're right." he finally said. "But what is the right thing to say at a time like this? None of us ever had to deal with this."

That was true. While Lilly knew what it was like to be upset with Miley, Miley's friendship with Oliver seemed to have a different pattern. They got upset way less times, but when they did, they got a lot more upset, and it was a lot harder to get them to make up. They always did in the end, but it was on their own, without any outside help.

But perhaps this time they had to give them a push, otherwise they could not make up at all.

However, before either Lilly or Jackson could think of something, Lilly's cell phone started ringing.

"Who is it?" Jackson asked.

Lilly pulled her cell phone out of her pocket.

"It's Miley."

"What does she want?"

Lilly didn't know. But she had an easy way to find out, and she was also curious about the same thing. So, she pressed the answering button, and put the phone to her ear.

* * *

In spite of knowing how rude that was, from the moment he knew that Lilly's phone call came from Miley, Jackson tried focusing his ears on the sound that came from the phone, trying to listen to whatever Miley had to say to Lilly.

"Hello, Miley." Lilly said. "Look, I'm sorry that I haven't managed to make Oliver talk to you, but he's really upset."

Jackson tried his best to listen in, but Lilly's cell phone hadn't a speaker (or Lilly simply hadn't turned it on) so he could only hear a faint buzzing coming from it.

"Look, why don't you just give him some time? I'm sure that if you wait, Oliver will get over it and be friends with you again."

There was a short break as Lilly listened Miley's answer.

"Yes, Miley, I know that Oliver is really upset, but I insist, give him some time. I'm sure – well, reasonably sure, anyway – that he will want to be friends with you again. Things will work out naturally, I'm sure."

This time, the pause was much shorter, but when it ended, Lilly had a confused look on her face.

"What do you mean you can't just let things work out naturally?" Lilly asked. "It's not as if you can do anything yourself."

Miley's answer was even shorter than before, but it was long enough for Lilly's confused look to grow even more confused.

"What do you mean you can?" Lilly asked. "What idea do you have in that mind of yours?"

This time, Miley's answer was being a little bit longer, so Jackson gave a look around to see if people had been lining up at the shack or not. Luck appeared to be on his side so far, because no customer had come while he'd been listening to Miley's call.

"YOU'RE GONNA DO WHAT?" Lilly shouted.

Jackson winced from the shout, closing his eyes as though that could ease the pain in his ears. At the tables, every single person sitting there looked at her, obviously far from pleased with the unexpected noise.

As she became the focus of everybody's attention, Lilly's tanned cheeks turned a pale rose, and she put a hand to her mouth.

"Sorry." she muttered, so low that even Jackson barely heard it.

The people sitting at the tables kept their angry looks for some more time, but one by one, they turned their eyes away from Lilly and focused back on what they had been doing before. Meanwhile, Lilly listened to Miley. This time, the pause was almost longer than all the previous others put together.

"Are you sure you want to do this, Miley?" Lilly finally whispered, her voice so low that Jackson almost strained his ears to listen. "I mean, once you do that turning back will be very hard – maybe even impossible."

Jackson could feel his worry starting to grow. Just what sort of crazy plan had Miley come up with?

"Oliver's friendship is more important you say? Very well, Miley, it's your choice."

Jackson frowned. Both Lilly's words and tone were giving him the idea that Miley's choice was going to be a bad one.

"Yes, Miley, I'll be ready in two hours." Lilly said after a long period of silence. "Yes, I understand what I must do."

Jackson frowned. Two hours. If memory served him right, that was the time when Miley was scheduled to go to meet Rob Reiner. That meant her plan had something to do with him for sure. But just what was that exactly?

"Alright then. See you in two hours, Miley."

Lilly turned off the phone.

"Ok then, what's the next crazy plan from my younger sister's brilliant mind?"

"She wants to ruin the audition so Rob Reiner won't give her the part."

Jackson's mouth went agape at his girlfriend's words, pure disbelief rushing through him. A passerby looking at his face would have thought he'd just seen a person growing another head,

"She wants to do what?" he whispered when he managed to get his voice back.

"She wants to give up the movie so that Oliver will stay her friend."

Even when Lilly said it, he couldn't believe it. Jackson was absolutely certain that Miley knew very well what she would lose if she turned the offer.

The only thing he could say to that was, "Well… she must really value Oliver's friendship."

"She does." Lilly agreed. "In fact, she might even want to be more than friends with him."

"I noticed."

He had. Jackson wasn't the most perceptive guy ever, but he'd noticed the way Miley had started to look at Oliver recently, with a certain… well, for lack of a better word, look in her eye. He might not be as perceptive as some others, but adding the way Miley looked at Oliver recently to some ambiguous signs he'd seen over the years and the fact Miley was willing to give up Indiana Joannie for him, Jackson had a feeling that Miley wanted to be more than Oliver's friend.

"It's a pity that she can't." Lilly added. "With Oliver dating Joannie and all."

"I don't think that will last much longer." Jackson replied.

He really didn't. Oliver and Joannie were growing somewhat distant over the last week or two. Joannie hadn't even come to give him support at the audition, just because she didn't want to miss hockey practice.

"So do I." Lilly agreed. "But we can't stand here talking about that – I've got to get ready for Miley's plan. I know she said two hours, but I'm not sure how long I need to get ready for the plan."

"Speaking of plan, how does she intend to give up the role exactly?"

"By acting like a total diva." Lilly explained. "She's convinced that if she does, Rob Reiner won't want her around."

"That shouldn't be hard." Jackson joked.

It really shouldn't. Although Miley was more down to earth than half of the popstars her age, she still let fame go up to her head sometimes. She should know exactly what to do.

Deciding to cut the joke short, Jackson asked, "Now, talking seriously, do you want me to help with anything?"

"No, thank you." Lilly said. "Miley didn't mention you at any point her plan. Besides, you've got to work, and apparently you also have a kid's birthday party to animate."

Then, after a short pause, she added, "However, if you could do me a favor and help me with getting Oliver to your house afterwards, I'd be thankful."

"Don't worry." Jackson said. "I'll be there as soon as I'm done with animating Douggie Sorkin's birthday party."

"You're so sweet." Lilly cooed. "And considerate."

"I know." Jackson said, smiling at her.

"And you're also so conceited." Lilly scolded, folding her arms and standing up straighter.

"But you love me anyway, don't you?"

"Always." Lilly said, a huge smile on her lips.

"In that case, here's one kiss to that." Jackson said, as he leaned over the counter and shared a kiss with Lilly, one that made her lose awareness of everything except her lips and Jackson's.

"And here's another one to wish you good luck with your plan." he said when the first ended. The second was even better than the first one.

"And here's another one just because." he added, before the two shared one final kiss, which turned out as good as the previous two put together, surpassing Lilly's wildest expectations.

By the end of it, both of them were quite out of breath.

"Now go on and get ready to ruin Miley's meeting with Rob Reiner." he said. "Good luck."

"Thanks." Lilly said. "And good luck to animate Douggie Sorkin's birthday party."

With that, Lilly turned around, and Jackson started wiping the counter with a white cloth, if only to have something to do while the customers didn't come. For some reason, the bar hadn't had much movement today. But that was fine with him, because that meant he'd have more time to rehearse while he worked. And the more time he had to rehearse, the better he'd act when animating the birthday party.

After all, he'd only get paid if he did his job well. And he could use the money for sure.

* * *

About four hours after Lilly had come to meet him at the bar, Jackson limped his way through his house's front door, wearing a messy suit covered in sand, full of twigs, and soaked in sweat. And as if those things weren't enough, he felt like he'd been beaten with a mallet. All for the sake of giving Douggie Sorkin and his friends good entertainment.

Less than ten minutes after Lilly left, and while Jackson was rehearsing, Rico had dropped by to do homework, and he'd gotten so fed up with Franklin that he'd thrown the dummy into a tree shredder. At first, Jackson had tried to make him pay the three hundred dollars, but because Rico's assets were frozen (as punishment for him not having eaten his vegetables) Jackson had forced him to pretend to be the dummy – but that plan backfired when Rico found out that thrashing him in public was the best way to amuse Douggie Sorkin and his friends.

But at least, Jackson had still gotten the three hundred dollars, and Rico had been so satisfied that he hadn't even tried to take them from Jackson. So, all in all, things could have gone a lot worse.

"Sweet niblets!" a voice cursed from the couch. "What happened to you?"

"Are you alright, Jackson?" another voice asked, followed by the sound of someone standing up and running to him.

Looking up, Jackson saw that both Miley and Lilly had already come back from the meeting with Rob Reiner. Miley sitting on the couch, and Lilly was already by his side, supporting him.

"Long story short, Rico ruined Franklin, so he had to replace him, but he ended up taking advantage of the fact that today's kids only like violence to beat me up." Jackson explained as Lilly started to remove the twigs that were tangled in his hair.

It was all he would say, and he believed he'd conveyed the essential part.

"What about you?" he asked. "Did you manage to ruin the audition?"

That was a weird question. Usually, people tried hard not to ruin things. To have Miley, of all people, trying hard to ruin things sounded weirder than that time when the two of them had to get inside those sumo wrestler suits so they could hit each other without getting hurt.

"I did." Miley said. "I had to pour ice water down Rob Reiner's shirt, but I did. He won't want to have anything to do with Hannah from now on, I guess."

Jackson looked at his sister in awe. She was clearly bent on keeping Oliver's friendship, if she resorted to such a drastic measure as pouring ice water down Rob Reiner's shirt.

Jackson nodded at Miley. "Right."

Then, he turned to Lilly. "So, if I remember it right, now it's our turn to go and convince Oliver to come here, isn't it?"

"Yes…" Lilly said, her voice full of concern. "But are you sure you feel up to it?"

"Sure I do." Jackson replied, his voice slightly weary, but with no sign of pain. "All I need is to take a shower, change into clean clothes, and then I'm good as new. Ready for another."

Of course, he didn't want to have another go anytime soon, but he'd been working at Rico's for years now. He'd grown used enough to suffering.

"Very well then." Lilly said. "I'll wait for you here."

With that, he went up the stairs, to do what he'd said before helping Lilly with the final part of Miley's plan. Secretly, he hoped with all his heart that, for once, his sister's plan would work.

* * *

Convincing Oliver to come along to Miley's house turned out to be much easier than Lilly had expected. All that she and Jackson had to do was to convince him that he had the chance to meet Taylor Swift, and then blindfold him – after coming up with an excuse to do so – and drag him by his hands until they were at Miley's house.

"I can't believe I'm going to meet Taylor Swift!" he said for about the twentieth time since they'd gotten him out of his house.

Fortunately, they were already at their destination. Just a few steps more, and Lilly could ring the bell.

"Uh-huh." Lilly nodded.

"Just try to keep yourself together when you do see her, eh man?" Jackson joked. "'Cause otherwise, you may not impress her."

"Sure." Oliver said. "Oh, and when can I take off the blindfold?"

"Not until we're inside." Lilly said. "You know, she doesn't want anyone to know where she lives."

Right as Oliver nodded, Lilly rang the bell, and waited for Miley to open the door. In the meantime, Oliver took off the blindfold. As he realized where he was, an upset look came upon his face.

"This is your house." he said as he turned to Jackson.

Right as they talked about her, Miley opened the door, a distraught look on her face. It was so convincing that, if she hadn't know anything, Lilly would have surely fallen for it.

"Miley!" she said, trying her best to play her role as well as Miley was. "What's wrong?"

As she asked the question, she turned to Oliver, trying to coerce him into acting sympathetically – although he still seemed mostly annoyed.

"I… I just can't talk about it." Miley sobbed as she put her hand to her chest. Hopefully, Oliver would get convinced soon, or Lilly would be the one to cry, with the talent Miley was displaying.

"I'm outta here." Oliver said.

He tried to go away, but both Lilly and Jackson held him in place.

"Sure you can talk to us about what happened." Jackson said, managing to pull off an incredibly convincing sympathetic tone. Even if he didn't have any vocal talent, he had a lot of it for acting.

"Of course." Lilly said. "Because that's what friends are for. And whatever happened, must have been terrible! Let's go find out."

Before Oliver could protest, Lilly and Jackson pushed him inside. The action was sudden enough for him not to have time to think about struggling.

"Miley, talk to us, please." Lilly said as she finished dragging Oliver inside.

Miley turned to them, the mask of a distraught look still in place.

"I didn't get the part." she whispered, her sadness still convincing as everything.

"Oooh…" both Lilly and Jackson said, as Lilly shook Oliver's hand in an effort to get him to react.

"Which would mean that I failed." she carried on.

"Oooh…" Lilly and Jackson repeated. However, Lilly noticed that Oliver simply rolled his eyes.

Miley turned and extended her open arms to Oliver.

"Looks like somebody needs a big hug right now." Lilly said, hoping that would make Oliver get the hint. However, he stayed where he was.

"She's talking about you." Jackson said. "Go on and hug my sister." he almost demanded, as he and Lilly pushed Oliver to Miley.

Miley gave a huge grin – this time, too huge to seem real – as she wrapped her arms around Oliver. But Oliver just let his own arms hang limply. Lilly and Jackson tried to wrap them around Miley's back, but he simply let them drop again. Apparently, he still wasn't in the mood to be close to Miley, nor was he feeling sorry enough.

Lilly and Jackson repeated the gesture a second time, but this time, he actually extracted himself from Miley's hug.

"Ok, you know what? Look…" Oliver turned to Miley as he spoke. "Miley I'm sorry you didn't get the part. But, I mean, let's face it. You'll get the next one. And the next one after that. And I'm not sure I can be around that anymore."

With that, Oliver turned around and started going out. Lilly saw Jackson starting to move in order to stop him, but she gave him a subtle signal not to do so. If Oliver didn't really want to keep being Miley's friend, there was nothing they could to do force it.

However, Miley appeared to be done with her act.

"What?" she asked, pure disbelief in her voice. "I poured ice water down Rob Reiner's shirt for you, and you don't know if you can be around that anymore?"

Oliver stopped at the exit, and turned around, a completely astonished look on his face.

"You what?"

"She tanked the audition Oliver." Lilly clarified.

"All for your friendship." Jackson added to emphasize the point.

"You what?" Oliver repeated.

"I gave up Indiana Joannie so you'd stay my friend." Clearly, Miley felt she needed to say it herself.

"You what?"

"But if you say you what again, ice water's going down your pants!" Miley threatened, as she turned around and walked away.

"Well thanks a lot!" Oliver exclaimed.

Lilly did her best to hold back a sound of disbelief. Miley had just told her straight out what he'd done for her, and yet he snapped at her?

"Okay, I'm lost." Miley said, frustration in every line of her face. "What's the problem now?"

"Miley I'll tell you what the problem is." Oliver said as he walked back in. "I mean, how am I supposed to walk away from someone who would do something like that for me?"

Miley smiled – and this time, it was a real smile.

"I guess you're not."

Oliver smiled as well, as the two finally shared their hug.

"Awww." both Lilly and Jackson said.

"So, you promise not to get upset next time that I get something and you don't?" Miley asked when they separated.

"Sure I won't." he said. "And it will be hard, but you know, not nearly as hard as losing a friend like you."

"Double 'awww'." Lilly and Jackson chorused again as they sat down on a stuffed chair.

However, Oliver's mind still seemed to be reeling from what Miley had done for him.

"You gave up the part of a lifetime for me." he said.

"I know." The smile on Miley's face didn't falter for a moment.

"Miley, this could have made you a movie star." Oliver continued, almost as if he was trying to make Miley change her mind.

"I know." Again, the smile stayed on Miley's face, and not a hint of doubt came.

"You know, I just heard they cast Chace Crawford as Eddie."

"Ooops!" Lilly muttered, so low it was barely audible.

"Wrong move!" Jackson whispered in a tone that only Lilly heard.

Lilly knew perfectly what he meant. After knowing this, Miley would certainly change her mind.

"I…" Miley started to say, until her brain completely registered what Oliver had said. "Huh?"

Oliver seemed to realize he'd screwed up.

"Nothing!" he said. "Friends? 'Awww'?"

They hugged again, but Miley snarled over Oliver's shoulder, "Get Rob Reiner on the phone now."

"I'm already on it." Lilly said, as she pulled the Hannah phone out of her pocket.

But, just in case, she didn't press the button. There was something she wanted to be sure of before doing so.

* * *

Miley couldn't even believe her luck. Chace Crawford cast as Eddie. That was even more of a lifetime chance than to get the lead role in one of Rob Reiner's movies. It was a dream come true – no, it was even more than that. Hannah would get to act alongside one of the hottest actors ever. Not only that, but they would have a lot of scenes together. Perhaps they could even get something more, depending on how close they became on set. She could already see it, the tabloids announcing Hannah's relationship with Chace Crawford. It would bring even more attention than when Miley had kissed Jake Ryan for the first time in public. And she would get to be with a guy even hotter than him.

But, as she kept holding Oliver in her arms, Miley couldn't help but to wonder about how logic her actions were, or about why it was so much worthier to be cast as Indiana Joannie just to have the chance to act alongside a hot Eddie. Giving up the part of a lifetime for Oliver was alright, but giving up the chance to star alongside Chace Crawford for Oliver was unacceptable? Where was the logic behind that? Sure, Chace was hot, but he was also almost eight years older than her. Neither Miley nor Hannah could legally date him. Besides, Miley had never known him, even as Hannah. As far as she knew, he could be a jerk. Guys like Jake (the biggest ego-maniac ever), Trey (who, deep down, was more of a kid too-used to luxuries than anything else) and Lucas (Miley had never dated him, but she remembered what he'd done to Lilly) had proved that being hot didn't really mean anything.

But Oliver was the nicest guy she'd ever met. And if it was a mere matter of hotness, he'd become pretty hot lately. 'Smoken Oken' like he used to call himself.

Miley stopped that train of thoughts right there. Where had that come from? She had never seen Oliver as hot. Why should she start seeing him that way now?

_Perhaps because he's becoming hot. _a voice taunted her on the back of her head.

Miley grit her teeth, hoping it would be enough to quiet that voice.

She let go of her hug and held Oliver at arm's length.

"You know, Oliver, it doesn't matter they cast Chace Crawford as Eddie. Your friendship means more to me."

Out of the corner of her eye, she could see Jackson giving her an astonished look. Clearly he didn't expect her to act that way. She could also see Lilly lowering the phone – fortunately, it appeared she hadn't gotten Rob Reiner on it after all.

Oliver smiled at her.

"That's really sweet of you, Miles." he said. "But you know, I wouldn't be a good friend if I didn't let you get this role. I wasn't a good friend in the first place when I wanted to walk away from you just because I didn't get something when you did. I shouldn't have done that in the first place."

Miley could feel her heart fluttering at Oliver's words.

"I'm sorry I had to make you give up the audition – but let's face it, our friendship is too great to give up because of a movie. And I should have realized that long ago."

Miley's smile returned, even wider than before (if it was possible). Oliver was being much sweeter than she thought he'd be capable of.

"I'm not sure if Rob Reiner will take you back now – but you can always try."

That was true. She could. And even if she failed, she would still have Oliver, which was much better.

"And you know, if you want, I can even talk to him, and say that it was all my fault you poured ice water down his shirt." he added. "That way, you have more chances of him accepting you back."

"You would do that for me?" Miley asked, feeling herself starting to blush for some unexplainable reason.

"Of course." Oliver said, smiling at her again. "I'm your friend. Hopefully, 'a true friend' – even if we don't sign our letters BFF."

Alright – that had been a cheesy line. But it had been sweet as everything, and this was Oliver they were talking about. Good lines weren't his strongest point, and this one was far better than his average.

"Thank you." Miley said, as the two of them hugged again.

"Triple 'awww'." both Lilly and Jackson.

At any other circumstances, Miley would have been annoyed as ever from Lilly's comments. But right now, she was so caught up in her happiness and her hug with Oliver that she didn't even care about it.

* * *

**Well, this was it. I know I added a short extension to the episode, but the truth is that, to put it simply, I didn't really like how Miley was so willing to give up the movie for Oliver's friendship, but then knowing of who gets cast as Eddie she just changes her mind all of a sudden. So, I added this short extension, to make the scene a little bit more believable.**

**And well... I guess I could be mean here and not tell you anything, but I'm going to be nice and give you an answer. Yes, Miley is going to end up with Oliver. How exactly that is going to happen... well, you'll have to wait some chapters to find out. **

**Now, about my big serious author's note. Well, I've been thinking, and I feel sorely tempted to just let go of this story... either that, or put it on hiatus for some time. The reason is simple: I'm not... well... to be short, giving my all. I have consciousness that I could do a better job, but I don't feel motivated enough to do it. **

**So, I want reader's opinions: do you want to see more of this story, do I delete it, or do I put it on hiatus until I'm more motivated?**

**If you're wondering the real reason why I'm not motivated, it's because of an idea for another HM fanfic that I had. That idea has been gnawing at me for some time before this one, but I wanted to wait for the end of the series to write it. Now the series is over, so I can write that other fanfic. If you're curious, the pairing is Miley and Oliver - and no, it's not an AU. The fanfic I had planned is one that could perfectly happen within the series, although it resorts to some weird measures. **

**By the time this chapter is updated, the prologue to that other fanfic is also going to be. While the final decision of which fanfic I will focus on will still be mine, I would like to know about your opinions. **

**So... please give your honest opinions on this issue... and also on this chapter - through a review, or through any other mean you want.**

**Thank you for your patience. Best regards. **


	5. Chapter 5: Brother with amnesia Part 1

**Hello, readers. I'm deeply sorry for my quite long absence from writing, but I have been sidetracked with other activities. As an attempt to make up for my long absence from writing, I'm delivering two chapters from this story all at once. **

**Actually, this was originally meant to be one chapter only, but the truth was that it was simply becoming so big that I ended up deciding to split it in two. I hope you don't mind the fact too much.**

* * *

******Chapter 5 – Brother with amnesia? – Part 1 – Jackson's accident**

As the Malibu morning sun came in through the windows of the four-bedroom beach house, Robbie Ray Stewart slid the last pancake of the day into a yellow plate. The smell was delicious, and the taste was bound to match it. After all, Robbie Ray had become an excellent cook over the years.

But he wouldn't figure out whether the pancake tasted good by himself, because it wasn't meant for him. It was for one of his two children. Which one exactly, it would be up to them to decide.

"Who wants the last achy-breaky-everybody-wakey-do-a-little-shakey-pancakey?" he asked.

In a flash, both Miley and Jackson grabbed the plate in their hands, both of them trying to pull it to themselves. Robbie did everything in his power not to grumble. He should have decided who would get the pancake himself. Or then, he should have made enough batter to give an equal number of pancakes for both his children. Unfortunately, it was too late to do either of those things.

"You already ate two, piggy!" Jackson shouted at his sister, before snorting like a pig.

"Oh wow!" Miley mocked. "I didn't know you could count that high. Now give it!"

"I'm still a growing boy!"

"Not since the fourth grade you aren't. Now hand it over!"

He didn't. Instead, he just kept trying to pull the plate to himself. Being more than through with such a fight over a mere pancake, Robbie Ray sighed and took the place away from his children's hands.

"OK." he said, as both Miley and Jackson focused their attention on him. "Your mother wanted kids, I wanted dogs."

That wasn't true. He and Susan had both wanted kids. But this was the only thing he figured he could say to get his children to get all their attention on him, in case they weren't giving it before. Like he had expected, it worked.

"I still want dogs." he said. Now work it out!"

Robbie Ray sighed again. He didn't know what was wrong with his children. He knew they really cared for each other, but while most children tended to let go of sibling rivalries as they got older, with Miley and Jackson it was just the opposite. Their sibling rivalry just kept escalating to new degrees as they grew up. Robbie didn't know if it was any mistake he'd made while educating them, or if both of them were just undergoing an extreme crisis of teenage hormone issues. Nor did he know which of the two options he preferred.

"You're right." Miley said. "Jackson, I have a simple solution."

Saying that, she picked the pancake off the plate and licked it, before placing it back on it.

"Ha!" she said in triumph.

But her illusion of victory was short-lived, because Jackson simply picked up the pancake and bit into it. To his own amazement, Robbie didn't get surprised at such an attitude.

"Ha!" he echoed in a tone very similar to the one his sister had used. "Sixteen years and still making rookie mistakes!" he added, before he turned tail and ran away toward the stairs.

Miley ran after him, as though that would change anything about the pancake, but she gave up the moment he started going up the stairs.

Glad that at least the fight was over, Robbie turned around to start cleaning up the table. He turned around to ask for Miley's help, but before he could even open his mouth, Miley decided to say something herself.

"Dad, how about you and I make a little deal. We move, don't say where we're going and I'll get you any dog you want."

Robbie chuckled, surprised that she had actually taken the whole comment about having dogs seriously.

"Honey, you say that now, but when he goes away to college I guarantee you're gonna miss him."

Miley laughed as though he'd just told her the funniest joke ever. Robbie, however, wasn't seeing the fun in this, just like he hadn't noticed any sarcasm in the whole dog comment issue, as though Miley was honestly considering doing such a thing.

It looked ever more than Miley simply didn't give her brother any value. He didn't know if it was part of whatever teenage hormones issue she was going through, some mistake he'd made with her education, or if it was some diva attitude gained from Hannah Montana going up to her head.

Whatever of those things had caused that attitude, he didn't like it attitude one bit.

"And Jackson says you're not funny!" Miley said when she stopped laughing.

Trying his best not to frown at the picture that was starting to form in his head, Robbie tried to give a real example of a similar case, "You know, your Uncle Earl and I used to fight all the time. When he went to college those were the four saddest days of my life."

And he was absolutely sure those had been the four saddest days of Earl's life as well. Well, maybe not exactly. After all, Robbie could think of a lot of days in his life sadder than those four: the day when Susan had died, the day when he'd had to say goodbye to his father before he left for a military mission, and a handful of others. But Robbie Ray knew that Earl had been as sad during those four days as Robbie himself had.

"Dad I can honestly tell you I'm not going to miss that pancake poaching syrup stealing mud crunkie!" Miley shouted.

Robbie tried his best not to sigh in hopelessness, and to prove his point in some other way.

"I know your brother's got a lot of faults." Robbie said, trying his best to say it in a joking tone. "One of them being that he don't think I'm funny. Let's face it, my Scooby Doo is way better than his!" In an attempt to prove it, he said, "Wroa wroa Wriley!"

"Zoinks. It's hilarious." Miley deadpanned.

Fair enough. His Scooby Doo wasn't as good as he would like it to be. But that wasn't the point.

"Anyway, the point is you're brother and sister." Robbie insisted. "For me. Just try and work it out."

"OK, fine." Miley said. "I'll do it, just for you."

Robbie nodded, not willing to press the matter further for the moment. But inwardly, he knew his daughter had said that more to get him to shut up than anything else.

He didn't know what went on inside his daughter's head. If he'd had a conversation of the sort with Jackson, he had a feeling Jackson wouldn't say what Miley had. Even if his son was somewhat lazy, and fought with his sister just as hard as she fought with him, he knew how to give value to things, and to people. Probably because he didn't have anywhere near as many things as Miley had. Robbie could relate to that, as he had grown up with nine siblings. As a result of that, there wasn't really a lot for each of them to have, and all of them had learned to give value to what little they had. But Miley, thanks both to the money Robbie Ray had gained during his career and to Hannah's money, had a lot of what she wanted, in spite of the restrictions Robbie Ray made sure to place. And as a result of that, Miley seemed to have started developing a problem with giving value to things and people. She just took them for granted, and counted on everything to work out in spite of what she did. Perhaps Hannah's influence was becoming too strong.

But even if it wasn't Robbie Ray knew that, when it came to solving this particular problem of Miley getting along better with Jackson, he would have to do something other than to simply ask her to do it.

And, as though he'd been struck by a bout of heavenly inspiration, an idea on how to do that came to his mind.

* * *

Not even twenty minutes after breakfast, Miley was already breaking the promise she had made to her father about getting along better with Jackson.

She didn't want to do it, but this time, it had been Jackson who started it. He had started messing around with Miley's yellow tights, Miley had tried to retrieve them, and before she knew it, things had ended up in a tugging challenge as both of them tried to pull the tights to their side.

What exactly he wanted to do with her tights was a mystery, but Miley wasn't particularly interested in finding out. She only wanted to get her tights out of her brother's hands before they met whatever nasty end Jackson had planned for them.

"Let go of my tights!" Miley shouted yet again, as she kept trying to pull them to her side.

"Not until you apologize for ruining my razor on those sandpaper legs!" he shouted back. "Or did you use it to mow your girlstache?"

"At least I can grow a 'stache!" Miley shouted back, trying to give a harder pull to the tights.

Jackson looked like he was about to throw a comeback, but any further words were halted, when their father made his way down the stairs, looking nothing short of upset at the fight they were having.

"Dang flab it!" her father said, speaking with his teeth clenched. "Can't a man bleach his teeth around here?"

"He started it!" Miley said, trying her best to incorporate an apologetic tone into the answer.

Miley had barely finished answering when a ripping sound echoed through the house, as the tights' stretchiness met its limit. A piece of the garment stayed on Miley's hands, but most of it was pulled away, as Jackson went flying through the open front door, hitting his head against the stone wall on the front porch.

"Oopsie." was the only thing Miley could say, with the sudden fear that came over her and her father looking at her stupefied.

Trying her best to overcome her fear, Miley rushed toward her brother, following her father.

From what she could see, Jackson wasn't seriously injured. At least, there wasn't any blood visible. But he'd hit his head, and there was no way to be sure about those things with head injuries.

Getting to Jackson first, her father knelt beside him.

"Son, you okay?" her father asked.

"Ow, my head…" Jackson moaned, as he propped himself up.

"Your head?" Miley shouted. "My tights!"

Her father gave her a stern gaze at those words. Miley lowered her eyes. She had only said that to test how bad Jackson was – if he was alright, he would throw a comeback – but considering the situation, it had been a wrong thing to say, in spite of her intentions.

"Who are you, guys?" Jackson asked, making Miley raise her eyes again.

"Very funny, Jackson." Miley said, trying to make it sound clear that she thought he was faking.

Because he had to be. Amnesia and that sort of thing was something from the movies and TV shows, not from real life. At least, that was what she thought.

"Who's Jackson?" Jackson asked.

Miley frowned when Jackson said that. If this was one of Jackson's jokes, he was taking it just a touch too far.

Meanwhile, her father placed a hand on the top of Jackson's head, and looked into his eyes.

"Oh Sweet Pete I think it's serious." he said in an alarmed voice, apparently trying to figure out whether it was serious or not just by looking into Jackson's eyes.

"Who's Sweet Pete?" Jackson asked.

Miley's frown deepened. She liked the path things were taking ever less.

"Oh my gosh I don't know anything!" Jackson shouted in fear.

Miley immediately held up a hand. "Let's not panic."

Her father turned his head to her, clearly wondering where that comment was coming from exactly.

"It's not like he knew that much before." Miley added, trying her best to bring a funny tone into her voice – if only to get her mind off how not funny things were starting to look.

Not bothering to scold Miley for her untimely attempt at humor, her father helped Jackson up.

"Well, knowing all that much before or not, almost everything that he knew before was essential." her father said. "And we'd better try to discover what happened, and how it can be solved. I'm going with him to the hospital so we can make some exams."

Miley nodded.

"Will you come with us, or do you want to stay here?"

Miley immediately stiffened at the mention of going to a hospital. "I'll stay here, if you don't mind Dad." she said as quickly as she could.

Her father nodded, not looking surprised in the slightest by the answer. Miley couldn't help but to feel guilty at saying that, but she didn't like hospitals, even if it was to give company to someone. She never did, not since her mother had died. Sure, she sometimes made the sacrifice of going there, but whenever she did so she'd spend the rest of the day jittery and queasy.

"See you soon, bud." Robbie said, kissing her forehead, before he put his arm around Jackson's shoulders to lead him to the car.

Miley watched them leave, trying her best to repress the worry that started to build up inside her. Hopefully, whatever had happened to Jackson wouldn't be serious. But with the tendency this family's members had to get into messes and attract problems, there was just no way of being sure.

* * *

Two hours after she had watched Jackson and her father leaving, Miley paced around in front of her living room's couch over and over again, in an attempt to repress the worry that, quite against her will, had continued building up inside her ever since her father and Jackson had left for the hospital. But in spite of all her efforts to calm down, the task was turning out more difficult than mastering one of Hannah's choreographies. She already regretted not having gone to the hospital with her father and Jackson. Sure, hospitals were the places she hated the most in the whole world, but if she was there she would at least be more informed about what was going on.

She and Lilly, who had arrived about forty-five minutes ago by taxi (Lilly couldn't yet drive, as she was only fifteen). Miley had called Lilly shortly after her father and Jackson had left for the hospital, and although Lilly had initially gone to meet them there, she had ended up coming here after Jackson had been sent in to undergo some tests. In Lilly's words, it had been because Miley's father had asked her to do so. Miley was grateful for the gesture, but, not wanting to insult her best friend, Lilly's presence was doing little good in making the situation more bearable.

"What on the hell is taking them so long?" Miley shouted yet again. "It's been two hours now."

"I don't know, Miley." Lilly said, like she had lots of times before. "I don't know what sort of tests they're making on him. I only know he was in there for fifteen minutes before your father asked me to come here to keep you company."

"I know that." Miley said. "It's just that..." Miley was about to say 'I'm worried' but she instead changed to, "…they're taking a lot of time!"

"Don't worry, Miley." Lilly said. "I'm sure that in spite of how long they're taking, there's nothing wrong with your brother."

Miley did everything she could not to lash out at her best friend. How could Lilly be so calm in such a situation? Jackson was her boyfriend, wasn't he? Lilly should be even more nervous and worried than Miley herself. How was it possible that she wasn't?

Maybe it was because Lilly had always been rather calm when it came to waiting. She could be a little bit of an airhead at times, but she had never been of the sort to get worried easily, or to get really impatient, unless something really serious or upsetting happened. And besides, she had seen Jackson after the incident for much longer than Miley had. Probably she knew better what was going on with him, and how serious it was.

Although Miley had been saving that question for last, as though it would be a bad omen to say such a thing, she couldn't help herself anymore. She had to know.

Miley decided to ask Lilly just how serious what Jackson had seemed to be, but her voice was stilled when she saw her father and Jackson at the front door. From what she could see, there was nothing physically wrong with him, but there also hadn't been when they left. The only thing that couldn't be wrong wasn't outwardly visible.

Her father opened the door, and the two of them came in, making Lilly stand at attention by Miley's side.

"How is he, Mr. Stewart?" Lilly immediately asked. "What's wrong with him?"

"Well, he's got quite a bump on the head, as far as physical injuries go." Miley's father explained. "As for what he's got exactly… we're still waiting on some test results. But there are good news and bad news."

Both Miley and Lilly held their breaths.

"The bad news is… it looks like amnesia."

Miley didn't know whether to feel relieved or not. She had guessed exactly that, but considering the reaction Jackson had to them after getting his head hit, she didn't think it was good that fact he'd lost his memory.

"The good news is… it should last for a couple weeks only."

Miley gave a sigh of relief at that statement. After all, assuming Jackson really had forgotten everything, it wouldn't last all that long.

But just how much had he forgotten?

"He really doesn't remember anything?" Miley asked as Jackson passed by her, looking all around the house as though trying to take in everything he saw.

"Well, he remembers some things, but others are a complete blank." her father explained. "Watch."

Miley turned around when her father walked up to Jackson, right on time to see him setting a pillow down on the couch.

Her father asked, "Jackson, who was the first president of the United States?"

"George Washington." Jackson replied, sounding quite sure of himself as he answered.

"And who am I?"

On instinct, Miley immediately turned wary, trying her best to be ready for whatever answer came.

"George Washington?" Jackson said fearfully.

That answer was enough for Miley to realize what her father meant by Jackson remembering some things but having forgotten others.

"I'm your father." her father repeated in a calm tone.

"My father's George Washington?" Jackson shouted in shock.

Alright, the amnesia seemed to have made her brother even more stupid. If he knew who George Washington was, he at least should have some sense to realize that there was no way he could be George Washington's son.

Her father didn't seem to think the same, as he carried on speaking in the same calm, patient tone, "No. I'm your father, my name is Robbie Ray Stewart, and I have nothing to do with George Washington."

"Right." Jackson said.

Then, he turned toward Lilly, who was looking at him nervously, as though afraid of what he would tell her.

"And who are you?" he asked.

Lilly walked up to Jackson slowly, a broken-hearted look on her face.

"Jackson, I'm Lilly Truscott, your girlfriend." she whispered as she grabbed his shoulders. "Don't you remember me?"

"No, I don't." Jackson said, sounding really disappointed with himself. "I'm sorry."

Clearly starting to get a little bit worried, Lilly pulled Jackson to herself and gave him the hardest, most passionate kiss she could muster. As usual, Miley turned her face away.

"Do you remember me now?" Lilly insisted when they parted.

"No." Jackson said, looking even more disappointed than before. "But I don't understand why. The kiss was so wonderful that I don't understand how I can have forgotten the girl who gave it."

Lilly gave him a pleased smile, obviously liking the fact that Jackson's attempts to make romantic comments hadn't disappeared with his memory. Even Miley couldn't help but to feel impressed. For an amnesiac, it had been a pretty good attempt at a romantic comment.

Her father walked forward and placed an arm around Lilly's shoulders. "Don't worry, Lilly. Like I said, it should only last a couple weeks. And in the meantime, we can always try to jog his memory, to help him remember." He lifted his finger, as though a sudden thought had come to him. "And I know just what I can do."

Miley made a face at those words. She knew what was bound to be coming.

"Dad, please do not get that stinkin' old mullet again!" she said.

"I'm not doing in for me, I'm doing it for the health and well being of my son." he defended himself, before he started walking to the stairs. "Hang on mullet, Papa's takin' you for a ride!"

Miley shook her head in hopelessness. Although her father had let go of his real mullet a long time ago, he still had a fake one, which he sometimes put on when he wanted to remember his old days.

Jackson's next question got her attention.

"And who are you?" he asked.

"I'm your sister." she answered. "Miley Stewart. Don't you remember me?"

In spite of what she had seen, Miley still hoped, deep down inside her, that he would remember her. After all, the two fought so much, he only wouldn't remember her if he had hit his head really hard.

"No… I don't remember anything." he said. "But you say you're my sister, so I believe you. Can you tell me more? Like… do we get along?"

Throwing all of her concern aside for a moment, Miley burst in laughter at the question. If Jackson hadn't lost his memory, he would have to be mad to ask such a thing. Sure, they did have their moments, but the answer was still so opposite to getting along that Miley didn't even know how to express it.

"Do we get along?" Miley echoed. "Are you kidding? You…" Miley was going to answer 'you're always fighting with me', but, as though it had come out of nowhere, a certain thought made its way to her head. If Jackson had amnesia, and it would only last for a few weeks, she could use that to her advantage, to have some fun in the meantime.

"You wash up the floor I walk on." Miley finished.

Lilly's eyes went as wide as an owl's at the statement. Fortunately, she didn't shout or say anything. Miley was grateful for that. If Lilly had said anything, it would be hard for Miley to carry on with her plan.

To her fortune, Jackson didn't notice any of Lilly's reactions.

"Oh, OK." He said, giving her a grateful smile for the information he'd just received.

Satisfied for the good beginning, Miley decided to follow on with her idea, but before she did it, Lilly asked Jackson to excuse them for a second, and pulled Miley aside.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Lilly asked.

Not surprised in the slightest that Lilly had guessed what she was thinking about, Miley said, "Come on! Dad said it should only last a few weeks. We can have some fun."

Lilly glared at her, her teeth bared in a snarl. Obviously, she didn't like the fact that Miley was thinking about taking advantage of Jackson. Deep down, Miley couldn't help but to feel a little bit guilty, but the thought of taking this chance to turn Jackson into the brother she wanted to have was too tempting.

"Maybe so, but you're going to have all the fun yourself." Lilly whispered in a strangely choked voice. "Because I refuse to take part in it."

Miley raised an eyebrow. Where had that attitude come from? Sure, Miley hadn't exactly expected Lilly to be okay with it – after all, Jackson was her boyfriend – but in spite of that, her reaction seemed really… weird, for lack of a better word.

While Miley tried to make sense of such behavior, Lilly walked back over to Jackson. "Well, sorry for just dropping on your plate that you have a girlfriend, but if you don't mind, we had planned a date for tonight before your amnesia. We were going for a walk on the beach. Do you think you can do it?"

"Sure I can." Jackson said. "After all, I said I would do it – even if I don't remember. So yes, I'll go with you for a walk on the beach tonight."

"Then it's settled." Lilly said. "See you tonight."

The two exchanged a quick goodbye kiss, and then, without so much as a goodbye at Miley, Lilly walked out of the front door. When she got outside, she turned around and gave Miley one last glare she sent her through the glass, a strange mix of sadness and anger. In spite of the distance that separated them, Miley flinched.

After the glare, Lilly turned around and walked away.

Trying her best not to think about her best friend's weird behavior, Miley turned to Jackson and kept listing on everything that the perfect version of him did. But, no matter how much she tried to shrug it off, there was a question that kept hammering at the back of her mind over and over again.

Just where had Lilly's sudden bad mood come from?

* * *

Lilly sat at the counter of Rico's shack, trying her best to focus on the math exercise in front of her, a problem based on determining the cosign of the angle of a certain triangle with the value of the sign of the same angle as reference. She had been going over the same exercise for the past quarter of hour, and yet she hadn't come any closer to finding the answer.

Lilly threw her pencil on the counter. Even if she was on her usual state of mind, Lilly would at best struggle to find the answer. But in her current state, it was a wonder she even tried to think about it. She just couldn't get Miley's attitude toward Jackson off her head – the way how Miley was taking the chance to mold him into the brother she wanted to have. It almost seemed as though the old Jackson wasn't a person worth existing, as far as Miley was concerned.

Why didn't Miley give him any real value as he was? Miley had lost her mother, she was meant to know not to take people for granted! If she had gone through the same thing Lilly had, surely she wouldn't be treating Jackson like that.

Lilly slammed her fist down on the counter, doing her best to hold back a sob. She had promised herself she wouldn't think about _him_ a long time ago – a promise that she had broken several times. And whenever she did so, she would usually end up in tears.

In an effort to hold off the memories that threatened to invade her head, Lilly grabbed the hot dog that was by her side and stuffed it into her mouth, biting half of it off at once, as if doing so would keep the thoughts and her tears at bay.

"Bad day?" Rico asked her, looking up from his task of wiping the counter.

Lilly didn't answer. Instead, she just chewed harder on the piece of hot dog, and swallowed, trying to force the thoughts that kept coming at her into the back of her mind.

"Join the club, then." Rico said.

"What's wrong?" Lilly asked, both mildly interested in what was going on with Rico and determined to focus on something that wasn't the memories she had barely managed to hold off.

"My cousin Angus is coming from Australia." Rico explained.

"You have a cousin named Angus?" Lilly asked.

_That name sure is weird for a Latino boy._ she thought. _But then again, he's supposed to live in Australia._

"His real name's Alejandro Nuñes Gonzalez Umberto Sifuentes." Rico said in manner of explanation.

"Why do you call him Angus?" Lilly asked.

"Because it's easier than calling him Alejandro Nuñes Gonzalez Umberto Sifuentes." Rico explained as if the answer was obvious.

Then, his bored look replaced by a scowl, Rico carried on, "I hate it when he visits! Obnoxious jerk! All he ever does is one up me. I catch a fish, he wrestles an alligator. I'm voted model student of the month, he's voted Australia's swimsuit model of the year!"

While Lilly didn't believe Rico had a lot of moral to call anyone else 'obnoxious' or 'jerk', she could understand where he was coming from. After all, most of her own accomplishments were also dwarfed by Miley's, who, as a celebrity, managed a lot of things that other people could only dream of. But at least, Miley had those accomplishments while hiding behind a wig, and she didn't brag about them. So, Rico's case seemed a lot worse than her own.

"G'day, mates!" a voice said from the boardwalk.

"And the torture begins!" Rico cursed, throwing away the rag he'd been wiping the counter with. Lilly looked around to see who had spoken.

Once her eyes caught sight of him, she barely managed to stop herself from gaping in surprise.

Standing at the boardwalk, was a boy who looked like an exact copy of Rico. The only differences that set them apart were the clothes they were wearing. While Rico was wearing a blue polo shirt (the rest of his outfit was hidden by the counter), the look-alike that had arrived was wearing a brown shirt and shorts, pale-brown boots, a red scarf tied around his neck, and a tan slouch hat.

It was just like with Miley and her cousin Luann. They usually wore different clothes, but they were perfect copies of each other when it came to physical looks. If they would wear the same outfit, it would be nearly impossible to tell who was who.

"Hey, he looks just like…" Lilly said as she turned back to Rico.

"Yeah yeah yeah, I know." Rico said, obviously annoyed. "He's gorgeous, don't rub it in."

'Gorgeous' also wasn't a word Lilly would use to describe either Rico or his cousin, but she wasn't going to tell him that. She was interested in seeing the interaction between these two, and if she made snide comments she would be driven off for sure.

"'xcuse me, love." Angus said as he walked up to the shack and leaned on it. Thanks to that, Lilly managed to see one more thing that distinguished him from Rico: a short, thin ponytail.

"Dang it Ricky, good to see ya." Angus said.

"Yeah yeah, you too Alejandro." Rico said, not even bothering to act nice.

"And that shirt…" Angus carried on, sounding honestly impressed. "Crikey! I love the way how you don't give a dingle about how you look. Good on ya, mate!"

Lilly tried to ease herself away from the pair without falling off her bench. So far, Angus was sounding even worse than Rico. It was a good thing they didn't have him around here on a daily basis – otherwise, there was no way of telling how much of a hell he would turn their lives into.

"Yeah?" Rico said, trying his best to throw a comeback. "Well, I'm very busy with my successful beach front bistro."

Both Angus and Lilly looked around after that statement. Besides the three of them, no living soul could be seen on the area, not even a seagull.

"Right." Angus said, sarcasm dripping from his voice. "Well, whenever you can pull yourself away, you've gotta grab some grub with me and my sweetie!"

With that, Angus turned away, looking at the spot he'd come from. Lilly and Rico turned their heads to follow his gaze. As if on cue, a redhead girl in a sundress and flip-flops walked up from the boardwalk and smiled at Angus.

"Why here she is now!" Angus said as the girl gave him a flirtatious wave.

"Wow, she's pretty…" Lilly said, but she immediately stopped her sentence when she saw the look Rico gave her.

"Probably not very bright." Lilly tried to correct herself as the girl and Angus walked toward each other.

"Cous, I'd like you to meet Barbie!" Angus said as he brought the girl up to the shack, his arm around the girl's waist, while the girl had hers over Angus's shoulders.

"Hello." Barbie said, as Lilly stuffed her hotdog into her mouth again.

"Hello." Lilly replied through her mouthful of hotdog.

"Yeah?" Rico said, sounding as though he was thinking about something.

His gaze immediately turned to Lilly. Lilly brought up her clenched fist, ready to punch him if he tried anything with her.

Her reaction made him stop. Instead of making a move on her, Rico turned back to Angus, saying, "Very well. I'll grab some grub with you and your girl. And I'll bring my own girl along. How about after tomorrow?"

"O' course!" Angus replied. "G'day, mate! And good luck with your 'successful beach front bistro'…" Angus dragged out the last part mockingly.

With that, Angus walked away, followed by Barbie. Rico swung over the counter and sat on it. Lilly jumped away right after.

"Don't even think about it, Rico." she warned. "I have a boyfriend, I won't be your date."

"Don't worry, I wasn't thinking of asking you." Rico said, sounding almost insulted that Lilly had considered he would even try to date her. "I was thinking of asking someone with a little more… level to her."

Lilly didn't know whether to feel relieved or insulted by that comment.

"And in fact, I have the right person in mind." Rico added.

"Who?" Lilly asked, confused at what could be Rico's idea.

"Hannah Montana."

"What?" Lilly blurted out. Rico getting Hannah Montana for a date? Where had that come from?

"That's right." Rico explained. "Hannah Montana will be my date. And you are going to help me."

Lilly raised her eyebrows. How was she supposed to do that?

Sure, she knew 'Hannah Montana', but even if she was a little bit mad at Miley for what she was doing to Jackson, she wasn't cruel enough to make her go through the punishment of dating Rico. And either way, Rico wasn't supposed to know the secret – even if at one point they had thought he did. Just what was his idea exactly?

"How am I going to help you getting a date with Hannah Montana?" Lilly asked.

"That should be obvious." Rico explained. "You're dating Jackson, and he once dated Hannah Montana. And I see _Mack and Mickey in the Morning_ sometimes; I know they're still friends. So, you're certainly Hannah's friend as well. And even if you aren't, I'm sure it will be fairly easy for you to get a hold of her, and convince her to come on a date with me."

"How am I supposed to do that?" Lilly insisted. Even if Rico had just suggested a logical way for her knowing Hannah Montana, it didn't make getting him a date with Hannah any easier.

"Well, I'll leave that up to you." Rico said. "But I'll tell you this right now: if you can get Hannah Montana to come on a date with me, I'll be your math tutor."

"What makes you think I need a math tutor?" Lilly asked.

Sure, she did need one, but she hadn't exactly shared the information with Rico.

"Please!" Rico scoffed. "Everyone with proper eyes can see how much you're struggling with math."

Lilly grumbled. The fact her problems with math were so obvious wasn't exactly a nice thing to hear.

"Either way, it's just like I said." Rico insisted. "You convince Hannah Montana to come to meet me here to get on a double-date with Angus and Barbie – and the rest will be up to me."

"What?" Lilly mocked. "You think Hannah will just fall head over heels with you as soon as she sees you?"

"Of course." Rico said, smug as always. "In fact, if it wasn't for that poodle guy, she would have fallen for me right when I had that dinner with her."

Lilly wasn't so sure of that, but she wasn't going to push her luck. As much as she hated to admit it, she needed a math tutor, and Rico was the best one around. And at least, it wasn't she who had to pretend to be Rico's girlfriend. If she was, it would be far worse.

Lilly immediately felt terrible for her selfish thought – but still, she decided that maybe she would try to convince Miley to be Rico's date.

"Very well then." Lilly said, trying to keep her answer as ambiguous as possible. "I'll try to get a hold of Hannah on time."

Rico slid off the shack, his feet sending sand out from under his shoes as he landed.

"Come and meet me here tomorrow at ten a.m." Rico said. "I'll have some note cards for you to give Hannah – just some guidelines I'd like for her to follow when my natural charm starts kicking in."

"Guidelines?" Lilly repeated. "What makes you think an international popstar will bend to your likes?"

"Like I said, my natural charm will take of most of the job." Rico explained. "She only needs to have something to act on, so she won't feel lost. And remember – persuade her to come, or math failure coming through!"

With that, Rico walked away, leaving Lilly alone to stand on the beach.

How was she going to convince Miley to dress up as Hannah and have a date with Rico? As much as both of them would do anything for each other, did having a date with Rico really qualify inside 'anything'?

And even if it did, was Lilly desperate enough for her math grade to go up so that she would ask Miley to go through the suffering of having a date with Rico?

Well… whatever the answer was, that would have to wait until tomorrow. Because today, Lilly wasn't sure that she could see Miley and have a normal talk with her. Not so shortly after seeing the way she was trying to model Jackson's personality. And most of all, not after knowing how Miley seemed to give such little value to the person her brother had been.

* * *

**So, this is the first part of this new episode. Don't worry, the second is coming right up next, so you won't have to wait for long. I know I made a minor change here in having Rico wanting to date 'Hannah' instead of Lilly, but with Lilly dating Jackson, it wasn't really an option to have her pretending to be Rico's girlfriend, and having him wanting to get to Hannah through Lilly was the next best alternative that I found.**

**I hope you don't mind too much.**


	6. Chapter 6: Brother with amnesia  Part 2

**Well, here it is. The second part of this 'episode', so to speak. I hope you enjoy it.**

* * *

**Chapter 6 – Brother with amnesia? – Part 2 – Lilly's secret**

Like she and Rico had agreed, Lilly went to meet him at his shack at ten a.m. of the day after, so she could see whatever Rico had in mind for his date with Hannah. She had agreed to meet with Miley on the same day at 10.30 a.m., assuming that half an hour would be enough for Rico to tell her what exactly he expected 'Hannah' to do while on her date with him. Fortunately, by now her anger at Miley had decreased a lot, although there were still some traces of it left. She expected she would be able to talk to Miley normally when she arrived – something that should be about to happen, seeing as Lilly had spent almost half an hour hearing Rico telling her how he expected for 'Hannah' to behave.

What Lilly hadn't expected was that Rico would have note cards for her to give Hannah, all of them giving further hints and lines that he hoped Hannah would follow. How he expected that a celebrity of Hannah Montana's caliber would just do what a spoiled Latino boy wanted, or how he expected that Hannah would just be so determined to help a friend, was something that was still beyond Lilly, but for some reason, Rico was totally confident on how, if Hannah had those note cards to act on, his natural charm would do the rest. He was also confident in how Hannah was one of those down-to-earth celebrities that helped their friends. While that used to be true, Lilly wasn't sure if the rule could be applied in this particular case. But hopefully, Miley would do her the favor, or Lilly would fail in math – the same way she was failing in understanding how Rico thought any sane girl would just follow what was on those note cards he had given her.

"'My Rico is the love monkey who carries me off into a magical jungle of romance.'" Lilly read what was written on one of the note cards.

Rico nodded, looking smugger than she had ever seen him.

"How can I get Hannah to say this?" she asked. "Even I, who don't have to say it, have got last night's lasagna coming up just thinking about it!"

"Well, then tell Hannah that if she doesn't say it, you'll flunk in math, and she will have to carry that weight on her conscience forever!" Rico exclaimed.

"You're an evil little monkey aren't you?" Lilly sneered, pointing her finger at the piece of the card where that was written.

"And loving it!" Rico beamed.

Lilly glared at him for that comment, but Rico simply stood up and went away, doing leg movements similar to the ones used in tap dancing with his arms spread like a bird's wings.

He went away right on time. Mere seconds after he stood up, Miley came from the other side of the beach.

"Oh, look." she said as she saw Rico's weird dance. "It's the 'Rico blackmail dance'. What's he got on you?"

"Nothing." Lilly said as Miley sat down. "At least, not directly."

Miley raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"It's supposed to mean that I have to get Rico a date with Hannah Montana so he'll tutor me in math." Lilly explained.

"You are getting Rico a date with Hannah Montana?" Miley repeated, panicked. "What's that supposed to mean? Does he…"

"No, he doesn't." Lilly quickly reassured her. "He just remembers the whole 'Jacksannah' event, and saw on _Mack and Mickey in the Morning_ that Jackson and Hannah are still friends. So he assumes that I, being Jackson's girlfriend, also know Hannah Montana, and if I get him a date with her, he'll tutor me in math."

"No way!" Miley immediately said, a disgusted look on her face. "I've been there once; I'm not going there again!"

On other occasions, Lilly would have either pouted or begged. This time, divided between understanding the reasons for Miley not to want to date Rico and her anger at still remembering Miley's lack of consideration for Jackson (which seemed to be extending to other people) Lilly just grumbled and crossed her arms.

Her reaction seemed to make Miley second guess her statement.

Her disgusted look slowly turning into a sympathetic one, Miley said, "You really need help in math, don't you?"

"Yes." Lilly grumbled.

"And he said it was only a date, didn't he?"

"Yes." Lilly repeated.

"And he didn't make you sign any contract or anything else, right?"

This time, Lilly only nodded, not surprised in the slightest. It wouldn't be beyond Rico to make her sign a contract or anything else in that vein.

"In that case, I suppose I can bear a date with him." Miley said. "After all, my life has been so wonderful since Jackson's amnesia; I suppose I can stand a bad moment or another."

Lilly did everything in her power to just sit still in her chair, instead of slapping Miley or snapping at her. Her life had been wonderful since Jackson's amnesia? What was that supposed to mean? That before Jackson's amnesia he had been making her life hell? That he had been worthless until Miley had a chance to reshape his personality? If Miley knew what it was like to really lose a brother, she wouldn't be talking like that for sure.

Trying her best to repress her anger, Lilly asked, "Wonderful how?"

"Well, just to give you an idea, this morning he made me breakfast, cleaned my room, and made my bed, all while my nails dried."

"He did your nails?" Lilly asked, unable to repress her amazement.

"Both sets, and he pumiced!" Miley said, putting her foot on the table. "Feel my heels."

Lilly took her hand forward and rubbed Miley's heel. Her mouth went agape at what she felt under her fingers.

"Like a baby's butt, huh?"

Too taken aback by what she felt, Lilly could only nod.

Miley took her foot off the table, looking behind in the process. As soon as she did, her attention was captured by something, and her look became ecstatic. Lilly didn't bother looking at what Miley had seen. She was certain she would know in a matter of moments anyway.

"Oh my gosh, it's Gabe Lamotti." she said.

Lilly merely nodded. She had suspected it was a cute boy from the beginning, and Gabe Lamotti, or 'Hottie Lamotti with the swimmer's body' like he was known through the school, was about the cutest in the entire school. But cuteness didn't mean much, like Lilly had learned when she dated Lucas. Besides, as far as she was concerned, Jackson was cuter than him, even if he was about a head shorter.

"Oh my gosh, he's looking at me!" Miley added. "I have been giving subtle hints for two years!"

"Okay, totally messing up his name every time you talk to him is not a subtle hint." Lilly pointed out.

"I-I-I-I do not do that!" Miley defended herself, trying her best to say it in a shocked tone.

Miley could say that, but Lilly was certain she was going to prove the opposite as soon as Gabe started talking to her.

Miley stood from her seat, and turned around to talk to Gabe.

"Hey Miley." he said with a smile that he obviously intended to be charming.

"Hottie… gottie… body… Gabe." Miley stammered when she looked at him.

_I knew it._ Lilly thought. _She can't speak to him without messing up his name._

"How you doing?" Gabe asked Miley.

"Good." Miley said, before adding in a triumphant tone, "I am so good, I am so good!"

A pleased look coming to his face, Gabe asked, "So, huh… you feel like taking a walk on the beach?"

"That would be so…" Miley began.

"Good?" Gabe finished, trying to help her.

"Good, yeah, good." Miley said, taking the suggestion.

Lilly raised her hand, ready to give a short wave of goodbye to Miley – if she looked at her before she went on her walk with Gabe. But, much to her surprise, before the two of them could leave on their walk, Jackson appeared as if out of nowhere, a bottle of sunscreen in his hand. He put himself between Miley and Gabe, shoved the taller boy away with his elbow, and poured sunscreen from the bottle he held into his palm.

"There you are." he said as he rubbed both of his hands together. "Left the house without your sunscreen, silly girl."

Obviously at a loss for words and actions after Jackson's unexpected appearance, Miley just stayed where she was, trying to speak.

"I think I'm covered." Miley finally said, as Jackson put the sunscreen on her arms.

"Not yet, you aren't." Jackson countered. "I wouldn't want my little sister to get burned. And speaking of get burned…" he turned to Gabe, now a stern look on his face. "Who are you?"

"I'm… Gabe." Gabe replied, confused at the fact Jackson didn't remember him.

"Grade-point average?" Jackson asked.

"Twenty-two."

"Any plans for college?"

"Not yet."

"Career goals?"

"I'm only sixteen!" Gabe shouted, looking shocked just from hearing the term 'career goals'.

"Get out!" Jackson immediately said.

"What?" Gabe shouted.

"I said get out Mister Man!" Jackson demanded, giving him his 'disapproving noodle neck'.

Not to Lilly's surprise, Gabe started walking away, too surprised by Jackson's behavior to do anything else.

"Listen… I'll catch you later, Miley." Gabe said in an almost fearful tone, before he finally walked away.

"No!" Miley shouted, giving a few steps toward him, her arms stretched forward like a zombie's. "No! No!"

But Gabe either didn't hear her or was too scared by Jackson's behavior to think about coming back any time soon.

"You…" Miley snarled as she turned to Jackson, clearly bent on unloading her frustrations on him.

"I know, that was close, wasn't it?" Jackson asked in an enthusiastic, pleased-with-himself tone. "But don't worry." he added as he walked around Miley until he stood behind her. "From now on, Gaby Baby and any seemingly perfect male specimen will never get near you again."

A shocked, heartbroken look came to Miley's face after those words. "Never?" Miley repeated in a choked whisper.

"Ever!" Jackson echoed. "Now let me get those ears."

Miley didn't say anything, but the grumpy look that followed Jackson's statement made it clear that she was starting to not like this new, seemingly improved version of Jackson.

_Serves her right._ Lilly thought, doing her best for not to give a fierce nod at the sight. _Maybe that way she'll learn to give value to the old Jackson – the one that really is her brother._

* * *

It had only been two days since Jackson had returned home with his amnesia, and Miley was already thinking that the idea of reshaping his personality thanks to his memory loss wasn't as good as it seemed at first.

On the first day, there had been no problem, with Miley just explaining to him what the 'perfected' version of him did to her every day. On the second day, things had started well, with Jackson giving her the pre-concert stra-nana berry protein milkshake, wiping her mouth, and calling her by all the names written in the fake diary Miley had spent the night preparing for him. However, everything had started to go downhill when Jackson had revealed an unexpected and unaccounted for 'protective big brother side' and shooed Gabe away right when Miley had managed to get his attention after two years of subtle hints.

And today, the first day of school they had ever since Jackson's amnesia, things were taking a turn for the worse, with Jackson stuck to her ten times more than her mother had been back when Miley started kindergarten.

"Here's your lunch." he said, standing right behind Miley as she shoved her back pack into her locker. "Grilled ham and cheese cut in the shape of a heart. Because I love you."

A boy and a girl passing behind them giggled at the exchange. Remarkably, Jackson was unfazed, but Miley felt so embarrassed that, if embarrassment could make people shrink, she'd be smaller than an ant by now.

"Go away!" Miley shouted, snatching the sandwich from his hand and throwing it into her locker.

"Don't worry." Jackson continued as though he hadn't heard her. "I used soy cheese – you know how dairy cheese makes the Miley train go 'Too Too'!"

In imitating the sound, Jackson actually mimicked the gesture of a train driver activating the horn. Panicked, Miley looked around, expecting to see half of the school gathered around her and dying of laughter, but, thank God, the only person around was Lilly, who, fortunately, wasn't laughing.

"Well, I have to go to my own class now." he said. "But don't worry, I'll come back to keep you out of trouble as soon as I finish it!"

Then, he turned to Lilly, and the two of them exchanged a quick kiss.

"See you after class, Lilly." Jackson said when they parted.

"Same here." Lilly replied. "And try not to get detention." she teased.

Instead of answering, Jackson just winked at her, and then left for his class, wherever it was.

Once she was sure he was out of earshot, Miley grumbled, "The new Jackson is suffocating me!" she cursed.

Lilly opened her mouth to answer, but on that moment, the bell rang for classes to begin, which made Lilly keep quiet until it stopped.

Once the bell stopped, and the two of them started walking into the classroom, Lilly said, "Well, I hope he isn't suffocating you so much that you don't remember you promised me Hannah would go on a date with evil little monkey love, yukety-yuck, gross, disgusting…"

* * *

"…slimy, repulsive, bottom-feeding, ferret-faced little math freak." Lilly finished once the two left their class.

Miley's mouth went slightly agape when Lilly finally finished her description of Rico. Whoever listened to her would think that she was the one going on a date with Rico.

"Well, ironically enough, I prefer going on a date with Rico over having the new not-exactly-improved Jackson following me like a shadow." Miley said when she managed to overcome her amazement.

It was true. Much to her surprise, putting up with Rico seemed more bearable than putting up with the monster of a brother she had created. Why hadn't she just told Jackson of who was the real him right from the beginning? Or at least, why hadn't she taken more things into consideration back when writing that fake diary of his?

Miley was going to make that very same question to Lilly, but it was stopped when Gabe started walking over to her, a charming smile on his face. The sight of him was enough to make Miley stop thinking about her troubles – or about anything else, other than making a second attempt at what she had failed in accomplishing yesterday.

"Hey Miley." Gabe said, stopping in front of her, his hands in his pockets. "We got kinda interrupted yesterday."

"Babe… Gabe, hi!" Miley stammered.

Gabe's smile widened, but then, Jackson put himself between the two of them in a flash.

"Babe, Gabe, bye!" he said.

Gabe stepped away, obviously intimated by the sudden approach.

"Your handsome's not welcome here." Jackson carried on.

Miley winced in fear, dreading what Jackson would say next – whatever it was. It turned out he didn't need to say anything else, but that didn't make Miley relieved in any way.

"Wow." Gabe said as he pointed at Jackson. "No girl's worth this."

With that, he walked away, obviously trying to restrain himself from actually running away. Miley followed Gabe with her eyes, doing her utter best for not to imagine him as every remotely handsome boy that existed in this school. Because if Jackson kept going like this, not even the guys more desperate for a girlfriend in the school would ever try to make a move on her. So far, Jackson had already managed to become as bad as Roxy had been when she came over to the school, back when Miley was being bullied by the Cracker.

"Yeah." Jackson shouted after Gabe. "Yeah, just keep on walking. And that goes for every b-slide babe magnet in this school. That means you, and you…" Jackson said, pointing at two guys Miley didn't even know. "…not so much you…" he added, pointing at another guy Miley didn't even know, who looked too surly to think about anything remotely related to girls. "…but…"

Miley could only stand there, her mouth open both in amazement and terror. Just what was Jackson's idea? At this rate, boys would run from her like the Devil from the Cross. Miley had to do something before that happened – assuming she was still on time.

But just what could she do about that? Talking to her father was out of the question – for him, the less Miley had to do with boys, the better. Asking Lilly to distract him was out of the question was equally unthinkable – Jackson believed in the diary Miley had written for him like if it was sacred, and Miley hadn't exactly taken the time to include details of his relationship with Lilly there. She considered asking Oliver to distract him, but such a thing equally out of the question. Oliver wouldn't come to school for the rest of the week, at best. He'd gone with his parents to Idaho while they helped a friend of theirs through some hard times (specifically, through the death of said friend's wife) and as such, there was no real saying of when Oliver would be back.

Oblivious to Miley's thoughts, Jackson leaned in, and whispered, "Wait 'till you see the guy that I found for you."

On cue, Jackson raised his arm, and gestured to call someone to come to them. Although Miley didn't want in any way to see the guy Jackson had picked for her, she raised her eyes to see who was coming. It only took her a second to regret her doing so.

"It's Nose-Whistle Wally!" Miley said, panicked, turning to Lilly, hoping that somehow Lilly would have a magical power that would make all of this a bad dream. However, Lilly simply looked down, looking even less willing to see what was going on than Miley herself.

"Hi, Miley." Nose-Whistle Wally said, waving at her.

Miley tried to smile, but her attempt ended up in a grimace.

"4.1, pre-accepted in Harvard, and he comes from money." Jackson said in a smug tone, obviously sure that he'd hit the jackpot with picking a guy for her.

Fortunately, the school bell rang again at that time, preventing Nose-Whistle Wally from making any real move on her.

"I'll call you later." he said, making some weird gesture that he obviously intended to look cool, but that Miley considered terrifying.

To her relief, he walked away right after that gesture.

"Can I pick them or what?" Jackson asked, before he walked away as well to his next class.

Too stunned by what her brother had done, Miley could only stand there in silence, as one terrible conclusion started to take place in her mind. Lilly had to literally drag her to the classroom, with Miley still paralyzed by the realization. It was official: her brother was even worse than Roxy had been when she came to school with her. She had to do something to get him off her back.

But what?

* * *

Miley could have thought the new Jackson was turning out to be even worse than Roxy – but that turned out to be only the tip of the iceberg of what Jackson had in store for her. Over the whole schoolday, Jackson spent the day following her around, and doing a number of things that were simply too bad for Miley to even want to think about them.

When she could finally get in her car and drive back home, it was all too late for her taste.

"The new Jackson is suffocating me!" Miley shouted as she burst into her house. She briefly noticed her father was at the phone, but she kept on her ranting anyway. "I swear that if the doctor hadn't said that the amnesia was only temporary I would create a third identity just to get away from him!"

Miley stopped herself there, allowing her mind to explore the possibility. A third identity seemed like the ideal thing to get away from Jackson, even if it had been something said on the spur of the moment. Sure, it would make it harder to juggle with her other two identities… but perhaps it was worth the shot.

"Oh, a redhead this time…" she carried on, already envisioning herself in some Jackson-free place. "Curly maybe…" she carried on, as the idea started looking ever more appealing. As much as it seemed like something complicated to do – if it would get her away from this new Jackson, it was worth it.

"OK." her father said. "Thanks Doc."

Her father hung up the call, and then stood up. The look on his face as he did so was enough to make Miley wary.

"Then you might want to go wig-shopping." he said. "The Doctor just gave me the test results... it says it could possibly last for years."

"Years?" Miley repeated in a strangled squeak. _Years with that new Jackson following me around and stopping boys from coming near me?_ Miley added in her mind.

"Possibly forever." her father finished, a sympathetic look on his face.

Forever. She would have the new Jackson, ten times more annoying than the old one, following her around, stopping her from doing what she wanted, controlling every person she spoke with. It sounded… so scary that Miley didn't even want to have deep thoughts about such a future. And the third identity would do little good, because, as much as she had considered the thought, Miley had always allowed herself to believe that Jackson would go back to normal on his own – until now.

"Daddy who better be ready to catch me say what?"

And he did so.

"What?"

That was the last drop. What little emotional energy Miley had left faded away, and she fell like an empty sack into her father's arms.

* * *

At Rico's shack, Lilly stood against the counter with her arms folded, checking her wristwatch yet again, impatience building up inside her with every passing minute.

Where was Miley after all of this? Miley had promised her that she would come to that date with Rico so that he would give Lilly tutoring in math. And while Miley could have a quick temper, a bit of a diva attitude at times, or a bit of an obsession with buying clothes, she wasn't the type of person who would break a promise once she made it. But the truth of the matter was only one: she was an hour late.

What could she be doing in a time like this? What could be so serious or so demanding of Miley's attention that would make her forget to come?

Lilly had tried to call Miley several times to figure those two things out, but on every attempt, Miley had simply failed to answer the phone. Either she had forgotten it somewhere, or was so busy with whatever she was doing that she couldn't answer. And as if that wasn't enough, the battery of Lilly's phone was on its last legs – it probably wouldn't handle another call without dying. Apparently, the only thing she could do was just wait for 'Hannah' to turn up.

Not far away, Angus and Barbie were sitting on a beach towel spread out over the sand. Rico was standing on another beach towel by their side, but he was alone. The empty space by his side was for 'Hannah' – but she just wasn't coming. Thanks to that, Rico was getting ever more anxious, annoyed, and angry, while Angus seemed to be having the time of his life, as he threw comment after comment at his cousin.

"It's been an hour now, Ricky." Angus said. "Shouldn't that girl of yours be here by now? Or is she, by any chance, standing you up?"

"She isn't standing me up." Rico said, his voice sounding as self-assured as it always did, in spite of the obvious anxious air to him. "She's just a busy girl."

"Busy?" Angus insisted. "Yea. I bet she's busy thinking about how to get away from you."

"Well, I for one am surprised how Barbie there is not making every possible and impossible effort to get away from the annoying, stuck up, obnoxious Kanga-fool that you are." Rico shot back.

"I take it back!" Angus said as if he hadn't heard his cousin's insult. "I bet what she's really doing is getting as far away from you as she can!"

Although Lilly couldn't see Rico's face from where she stood, she could practically sense him send his cousin a look that could kill. Angus, however, was unaffected, as he simply put an arm around Barbie's shoulders. Although she had seen gestures of the kind time and time again over the last hour, Lilly couldn't help but to get confused, wondering what exactly Barbie saw in Rico's cousin. Although Lilly had first believed she wasn't very bright, watching her for an hour changed her look. Barbie looked as intelligent – and as normal – as an average girl her age, it didn't seem likely she would see anything attractive in Angus.

It seemed, however, that Rico was through with his cousin's comments, at least for now, because, after hearing Angus' latest remark, he stood up and rushed over to Lilly.

"Where is Hannah?" Rico demanded, sounding like he was about to explode from his nervousness. "She was meant to be here by now!"

"I don't know." Lilly said, raising her arms apologetically. "She promised me she would be here. I checked a lot of times with her beforehand!"

"She was meant to have arrived an hour ago!" Rico insisted.

"I know!" Lilly insisted. "Don't ask me why she isn't here. She may be my friend, but she's also a celebrity. I'm sure she has a lot of things to do, and a lot of last-minute compromises!"

"She has, huh?" Rico asked. "Well, tell her this: if she doesn't manage to find some time in her very busy schedule to come here in the next twenty minutes, she'll have to carry the guilt of being responsible for your failure in math!"

Panic bursting through her, Lilly immediately pulled out her cell phone, and dialed the number of the Hannah phone as quickly as she could. Unfortunately, right when she pressed the call button, the cell phone merely beeped once, and then the screen went black, as the last bits of power faded away.

Not even thinking about what she was doing, Lilly took off running as quickly as she could toward Miley's house, fueled by the motivation of getting a math-tutor good enough for her not to fail this year.

* * *

Her father's hand still on her left shoulder, Miley hugged her brother even tighter than before, as she tried to get her mind to stop reeling at the discovery she had just made. After trying everything possible and imaginable to make Jackson recover his real memory – beginning with comparing his letter to the one that was in the diary, and ending with reminding him of the time she had finally convinced Bobby Lenworthy to come over and watch a movie with her – it had turned out that her efforts had been completely unnecessary.

Jackson had been faking everything, right from the moment he had hit his head – and her father had been on it. Apparently, he had promised Jackson a new car, in exchange for Jackson helping Miley to realize that, deep down, the brother she really wanted to have was the one she'd always had. To have known that Jackson was only faking all along was one of the most shocking feelings Miley had ever experienced in her life – but at the same time, it had also been ten times more reassuring than she had ever thought possible.

Sure, he had ruined a lot of things during that big well-rehearsed performance, but, much to Miley's surprise, she didn't care now. She would think about how to solve those things later. To discover that she had her real brother back in her life, exactly the way he had always been, was just such a big relief that nothing else mattered.

"Miley!" a voice called. Looking at the front door, all three Stewarts noticed that Lilly had just barged her way in, sweaty and out of breath.

"What are you still doing here?" Lilly panted, as she stumbled forward and gripped the backrest of the couch. "You were meant to have gone to that date with Rico an hour ago!"

"Miley on a date with Rico?" her father repeated, an eyebrow raised. "What would she be doin' datin' that Latino runt?"

_Sweet niblets!_ Miley thought. _I was so busy with trying to get Jackson to recover his memory that I forgot the promise I made to Lilly!_

"Sorry, Lilly." Miley quickly said, trying to sound as apologetic as possible. "It's just that I was too busy trying to get Jackson to recover his real memory."

Making only a short break to take a breath, Miley added, with a huge smile on her face, "And guess what! I didn't even need to! His real memory was there all along!"

As soon as she said that, Miley took her hand to her mouth, realizing that she had again spoken too much.

Lilly was dating Jackson. The two weren't meant to have any secrets to each other. After Lilly knowing that Jackson had told her such a lie, that he'd put up that sort of act in front of her, her relationship with him would certainly go through a really rough time – maybe even end.

But, much to Miley's surprise, Lilly didn't go on a wild rampage after discovering she had been lied to, nor did her mouth go agape at the information she had received. Instead, Lilly simply asked, "Does that mean it worked?"

Miley raised an eyebrow. "It worked?"

"Yes, Lilly, it worked." Jackson said from behind Miley.

Lilly nodded, a strangely relieved look coming onto her face.

"Well, it was about time." Lilly said. "It took a bit longer than I expected, but it happened."

"Whoa, whoa, hold on there." Miley said, her hands raised. "You were into this as well, Lilly?"

Lilly didn't answer, but the silence and the way how she lowered her eyes were more than well enough for Miley to understand.

A swarm of questions invaded her mind at the realization. How could Lilly have kept such a thing from her? Why would her father and Jackson go through the trouble of enlisting her into that cause? And most of all, why would Lilly agree with following their plan?

"Why?" Miley asked, figuring that whatever Lilly said would work as an answer to all those three questions.

Lilly raised her eyes slightly, but her gaze still didn't meet Miley's.

"Because I thought you had to learn to give value to him as your brother, and as he was." Lilly said in a low voice. "And you had to learn to do it in a less painful way than me."

"What is that supposed to mean?" Miley asked. For her, everything made ever less sense with each of Lilly's explanations.

"I also didn't know how to give my brother his real value." Lilly explained, her voice now strangely choked, as though she was trying to hold back a torrent of tears.

"You didn't know how to give value to your brother?" Miley echoed. "But you don't even have a brother!"

At least, that was what Miley thought. She hadn't ever heard of Lilly speaking of a brother. She hadn't even seen anything around Lilly's house that would remotely suggest she had a brother. The only mention Lilly had made of a brother was years ago, that time when she had told Miley that she only had to learn to love Oliver like Lilly had learned to love her brother's pet hamster, back when Oliver had still been in love with Hannah Montana. That time, Miley had been too confused at the rest of the comment to give proper attention to the fact Lilly didn't have a brother.

"Not anymore." Lilly whispered, so low Miley barely heard it, as she lowered her head again and gripped the backrest of the couch tighter.

Miley's heart sank at those words. Lilly's tone made obvious why she didn't have a brother anymore. Miley felt a knot in her heart as the realization sank in. She knew what it was like to lose a person close to her. Her mother had already died, and both of her grandfathers also had died, one of them before Miley had been born. But for Lilly's brother not to be here...

"What happened?" she asked, unable to help herself.

"I and my brother Louis were also fighting all the time." Lilly explained. "Maybe not as much as you and Jackson, but we fought a lot. And even if we didn't fight as much as you and Jackson, we didn't have half of the 'sibling moments' you two had. For us, it was always about the fights. And they mostly came from me being jealous of him, because Mom and Dad gave him more attention than they did to me. But it was only fair they did."

Miley opened her mouth, both to ask what she meant by that and to tell Lilly that she hadn't answered the exact question, but Jackson laid a hand on her arm to stop her. Miley looked behind, trying to see her father's and brother's reactions. But neither of them seemed shocked. They were both giving Lilly infinitely sympathetic and compassionate looks, but they didn't look the slightest bit surprised.

They knew. Whatever had happened to Lilly's brother, both of them already knew about it, probably ever since they had filled her in on the plan of Jackson pretending he had amnesia.

"Louis had a lot of breathing problems." Lilly carried on after a long pause. "So, he needed much more care and attention than me – but I couldn't accept that. So, we argued a lot because of it. Or rather, I argued with him, and he did his best not to argue back, so his breathing wouldn't go even worse. One day, he got a really nasty cough, he had to go to the hospital… and he… he…"

Unable to finish her sentence, Lilly gripped the backrest of the couch so tight her fingers almost punctured it, and let her head down. Miley could see the teardrops falling from her best friend's eyes.

"He was gone." Lilly said. "Gone. And I couldn't apologize. I never said I was sorry for always fighting with him. I never made up with him."

Hesitantly, Miley walked over to her best friend, and put a hand on her arm. Lilly sobbed harder for a moment, but she didn't shake her off.

"Why didn't you ever tell me?" Miley asked, trying to pour all the sympathy she could through her touch.

"I couldn't." Lilly said. "It was too painful."

Lilly let out a few sobs, and added, "But after Jackson and your father told me about their plan… well, I just felt like I had to do something."

Lilly stopped her sentence there, but her tone seemed to add the final segment 'just in case'. Miley understood what Lilly meant. And she felt terrible at herself for not knowing better than to just take her brother for granted – for taking all of them for granted. There was no such thing as granted in this life. Everything could be gone in an instant – and most of the times, there was nothing you could do about it. You could only cherish what you had, and do your best to

She was brought out of her thoughts when she felt a hesitant touch on her arm. Looking backwards, she saw Jackson and her father standing right behind her. Both of them looked unusually serious.

"Miles, listen… I know I'm not the best big brother ever either." he said. "But I want you to know that, even if we do fight… you're my little sister. And deep down I… well, you get the picture."

Miley smiled, happy to see him revealing one of the traits typical of his real self. Obviously, his pride stopped him from actually saying the words 'love you' or 'care about you'. But she was more than happy enough with that.

"I do too." she said, putting an arm around his shoulders, bringing him in for another hug. "And I'm sorry for having made you act like my slave.

Lilly lifted her head slowly, and, in spite of the tear streaks on her face, she smiled.

"Come here you too." Miley said, reaching out to Lilly with her free arm. "Looks like you also need a hug."

Lilly didn't have to be told twice.

Wrapping her left arm around her best friend's shoulders, Miley pulled both Jackson and Lilly as close to her as she could. From both sides, the two of them hugged her back just as hard.

Miley didn't know how long she spent there, between her brother and the one that was like a sister for her, but she knew that when she had to break away, it would seem far too soon.

Her father's voice broke through the warmth inside her heart and mind.

"I'm sorry to interrupt the tender moment, but it's just that, even though it's really touching to see you all huggin' like that, there's one thing that keeps buggin' me. What is that whole thing about you having a date with Rico, Miley?"

"Sweet niblets!" Miley repeated, echoing her thought from before. "I must be terribly late!"

Without giving her father any further answer, Miley ran up the stairs, determined to get 'Hannah-ed up' as quickly as she could.

"You didn't answer my question!" her father shouted.

"Lilly will explain!" Miley shouted as she got to the top of the stairs, without even slowing down or looking back.

Hopefully, she would get to the date with Rico on time – at least, on time for him not to pull out of the offer of giving Lilly math tutoring.

* * *

After spending only ten minutes putting on her Hannah Montana attire – an absolute record, in spite of the appearances - Miley made her way through the beach, hoping she wouldn't be mobbed by fans before she got there. So far, the crowd was leaving her alone, thanks to the disguise she had – a hat and a pair of large sunglasses – but there was just no saying of how long that would last. Hopefully, it would last at least until she found Rico, his cousin, and his supposed date. By then, she was certain she would be mobbed anyway – but if she could delay it, all the better for her.

Fortunately, the task of finding Rico and his date turned out to be less hard than she had expected. After only five minutes of looking, Hannah she saw several people standing rather close together, looking with quite a degree of interest at something.

She could see Rico and a kid who looked just like him, brawling in front of the shack, while an amused crowd watched. Among the crowd, was a redhead girl in quite fancy clothes, looking like she was dying of boredom. Remembering Lilly's description of Angus's girlfriend, and deciding the girl was a close match, Hannah rushed over to her side.

"Pssst." Hannah whispered, as she crouched down by the redhead girl's side. "Are you Barbie?"

"Yes." the redhead whispered at her. "But who are…"

In response, Hannah slid her sunglasses down and pulled her hat slightly backwards. A look of absolute awe came onto Barbie's face in an instant.

"Oh my gosh!" Barbie gasped. "You're Han…"

Hannah quickly covered Barbie's mouth.

"Ssssshhhh!" Hannah whispered, as she fixed her sunglasses and hat with her free hand. "I know who I am, and now so do you. But the whole beach doesn't have to know that, okay?"

Not while it could be avoided, anyway.

Thankfully, Barbie nodded, her mouth still covered.

Hannah gave a quick look around, to see if anyone had noticed the exchange, but fortunately, every person there was too busy watching Rico and the other kid brawling in order to pay attention to them.

"What are you doing here?" Barbie asked, awe still dripping from her voice. "And how do you know who I am?"

"I know who you are because a friend of mine told me about you." Hannah said. "And I was meant to come here to… well, to have a date with your boyfriend's cousin."

"Huh?" Barbie asked, an eyebrow raised.

"Let's just say your boyfriend's cousin promised that friend of mine who told me about you a favor if I dated him." Hannah said.

She didn't know why she was telling Barbie this – after all, the two hadn't even known for a minute. But the truth was that, at least as far as looks went, Barbie seemed a normal girl, and noticing that was enough for Hannah not to understand why she would date an even worse version of their Rico. Besides, her intuition was telling her to trust Barbie – at least, to trust her enough to share this particular bit of information.

"But enough about me." Hannah said, determined to find out why Barbie was dating Angus. "What about you? What do you see in the Kangafu?"

"Nothing." Barbie whispered back, looking quite annoyed. "I only want to pass Spanish, and that didgeri-dork promised he'd help me with that."

"Really?" Hannah asked. "The…" she checked one of the notes Lilly had given her. "…love monkey I'm supposed to date promised to help my friend with math!"

"Oh…" Barbie said, as though she was considering something. "You know, I'm good at math."

"And my friend's good at Spanish." Hannah said. "You two don't need them, you can tutor each other!"

"Sounds good." Barbie said with a smile as she stood up from the towel she was sitting on. "But if that's the case, maybe we should tell them that there's no deal."

"No thank you." Hannah quickly said. "I would prefer to make my way out of this beach without people ever knowing I have been here. Besides…" Hannah pulled the note cards Lilly had given her out of the pocket of her trousers. "…it's not in my notes to tell them the deal's off if we find alternatives."

"It's not in mine either." Barbie said, producing a stack of similar cards.

Deciding that no further words were necessary, both Hannah and Barbie threw their note cards on the sand and walked away from the beach, leaving the two boys to continue their fight, without noticing that the two main reasons for their conflict had gone away.

* * *

**Well, here it is. The second part of this chapter. I hope you enjoyed it, because honestly, I feel like the quality of my writing in this fanfic is starting to decay. **

**I know it was rather mean of me to mention Lilly having a brother who died, but well, the truth is that in "Miley Get Your Gum" Lilly says that Miley only has to love Oliver like she learned to love her brother's pet hamster, but in "Would I Lie to You, Lilly?" Lilly says that she sometimes would like to have a brother. While I do think that most likely Lilly wouldn't have made either of those comments if she really had a brother who died, that was the only halfway logical explanation I found for that inconsistency. So, don't blame me, blame the writers of the show for bringing it up in the first place.**

**Also, to all those who asked me not to stop writing this story - rest assured, I will try to continue it, even though I think the quality of my writing is starting to decay. However, I will also continue to write my other fanfic - and although it is vastly different from this one, I hope some of this story's readers take the time to read it and review it.**

**Thank you for taking the time to read this. Until my next update, and take care.**


End file.
